THE 

SOUTHERN CROSS 

AND 

SOUTHERN CROWN. 



THE 



SOUTHERN CROSS 



AND 



SOUTHERN CROWN 



OR, 

dftraptl in Mm %m\mh 



BY MISS TDuKHR, 

AUTHOR OF "THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH," u AEBEOKUTA, 
ETC. 




NEW YORK: "~ 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
No, 285 BROADWAY, 



1855. 



PREFACE. 



The History of the New Zealand Mission is so 
full of matter of the deepest interest, that the 
writer of this volume feels more strongly even 
than in former instances, how imperfect is the 
view conveyed by the present sketch., 

Agak too, she has to regret, as in the case of 
" Abbeokuta," the necessity she has been under 
of recording details of so revolting a character, 
though she has touched upon them as lightly 
and as briefly as she could. They serve how- 
ever to set forth in the strongest light what 
the natural heart is capable of when free from 
even the indirect restraint of Christianity, and 
thus the more to magnify the power and grace 
of God. 



vi PREFACE. 

Through the kindness of the authorities of the 
British Museum, she has been permitted to make 
use of some sketches from the pencil of Sir 
George Grey ; for which she would take this op- 
portunity of offering her sincere thanks. 



West Hendred, April, 1855, 



CONTENTS. 



I. New Zealand — Scenery — Forests — Volcanoes — 
Te Rapa ...... 1 

II. Origin and character of the New Zealanders . 12 

III. Discovery of New Zealand — Captaiu Ork — Food 

and clothing of the natives ... 25 

IV. Rev. S. Marsden— Tippahee . . .34 

V. Church Missionary Society — Ruatara — Plans for set- 

tlement ..... 39 

VI. Mr. Marsden's visit to New Zealard — Death of 

Ruatara . . . . . .53 

VII. Trials and patience of the first settlers — Beginning of 
progress — Mr. Marsden's second and third visits — 
Hongi in England — His conduct on his return 67 
VIII. Progress of the Mission — Mr. Marsden's fourth visit — 
Arrival of Rev. H. Williams — Trials — Launch of 
Herald— Rev. W. Williams . . .85 

IX. Increased difficulties and dangers — Destruction of 

Wesleyan settlement — Quiet restored — Hongi's 
death— Mediation between hostile tribes . 100 

X. Arrival of more Missionaries — Preaching in the vil- 

lages — Ranghi — Dudi-dudi . . .112 

XL Progress of Mission — Schools — Baptisms — Rev. S. 

Marsden's sixth visit .* . . 125 

XII. Spirit of inquiry at the settlements — Betsey — New 

station formed at Waimate . 138 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAfil 

XI I L The Waimate — Progress — Ripi — Tupapa — Mr. Ja- 

mieson . . . . . 145 



XIV. Stations in the Bay of Islands, from 1830 to 1840 164 
XV. Kaitaia — Hindrances — Ngakuhi— Romish Bishop — 

Bishop of Australia — Mr. Marsden's last visit 178 
XVI. Southern, stations — Thames— Roto-rua — Tauranga — 

Mata-Mata . . . . .185 

XVII. Waikato — East Cape — Kapiti — Tamahana Raupa- 

raha 204 

XVIII. General state of the country — Colonization — War 216 

XIX. Arrival of the Bishop — Waimate— Statistics of Mis- 

sions ill 1854 . . . .230 

XX. Statistics continued — Present state of the Island 247 

XXI. Wiremu and Simeon— The Martyrs of Wanganui — 

Conclusion • 256 




I 



\ 







ANDS, 

1 


; 


BED. J 




L__r 






1 





THE SOUTHERN CROSS 

AND 

THE SOUTHERN CROWN. 



CHAPTER I. 

NEW ZEALAND — SCENERY — FORESTS — VOLCANOES — TE RAPA. 

u How shall they call on Him. in whom they have not believed ? n 

Rom. x. 14. 

What a wonderful page in the history of modern 
times is the record of New Zealand ! What a blessed 
exception to the general coiirse of territorial acqui- 
sition ! A conquest without war ; # a fierce and power- 
ful people subdued, not by physical force, but by moral 
suasion ; a nation of cannibals transformed into an 
active, industrious, and peaceful population; and the 
original natives, instead of gradually receding from and 
melting away before the white men, continuing still in 
possession of land and property, and becoming amal- 
gamated with them. 

To the traveller who now for the first time visits the 
island, and approaches one of the English settlements 
on its shores, the records of its former history must 

* We do not consider this assertion affected by the disturbances 
in 1844 and 1845, as these were only partial, and arose from the bad 
faith of some of the Europeans, and other accidental circumstances. 

E 



THE NORTHERN ISLANDS, 



2 



ZEALAND. 



seem like fables of the olden time. He sees the lines 
of English houses, the shops filled with European mer- 
chandise, the public offices, the harbour thronged with 
shipping, the town filled with a busy population ; he 
finds gardens rich with the fruits and flowers of cen- 
tral and southern Europe ; and the fields beyond are 
abounding in grain. Can he readily believe that, long 
within the memory of man, that beach was a scene of 
frightful desolation, nnvisited save by the fierce war 
canoes of some invading chief; or by some solitary 
whaler, bringing misery and destruction to the land ? 
Can he picture to himself those plains now waving 
with a golden harvest, or covered with grazing cattle, 
as being then fruitful only in deeds of horror, as the 
scenes of bloodshed and cannibalism, of which the bare 
recital makes the blood run cold ? And those noble- 
looking men of a darker hue, now freely mingling 
with the Europeans, and busied with the arts of peace, 
can they in their earlier days have partaken of their 
fathers' horrid banquets, and feasted on the flesh of 
their slaughtered enemies ? 

Yet so it is ; and if our traveller should, unhappily, 
himself be ignorant of the transforming power of the 
gospel, he will be at a loss to account for the change ; 
and will find it difficult to believe that the foundation 
of all he sees was laid by a few devoted servants of 
Christ, who, moved by love to Him, and to the souls of 
their fellow-men, risked their lives among this then 
savage people ; and that had not the gospel prepared 
the way, no colonist would have ventured to settle in 
New Zealand, nor could any merchant vessel have 
safely visited its shores.* 

* I have seen in the outskirts of this empire, in the most bar- 



!NEW ZEALAND. 



3 



The unfolding of this history is the object of the 
present volume, but our connected account of the work 
of Grod there will not extend beyond the period when 
the island became an English colony; for our ob- 
ject here, as elsewhere, is to bring before our readers 
the first establishment and early trials of a Mission, 
rather than its subsequent progress, which may be 
better gathered from other soiirces. 

Before, however, we enter upon our principal subject, 
we shall give some short account of the country and its 
inhabitants. 

There is much in New Zealand to awaken special 
interest in an English mind. Its sea-girt isles, situ- 
ated at the remotest part of the earth's circumference,* 
inhabited by a people bold and brave, intelligent and en- 
terprising, seem naturally fitted to be the Britain of the 
Southern hemisphere, and have already drawn to them- 
selves the attention of all classes of our countrymen. 

New Zealand properly consists of three islands, but 

barous countries, pious men who have passed long lives in endea- 
vouring to reclaim, and civilize the nations among whom they have 
resided. I have seen them regarded by those races as friends, and 
benefactors * * * I have found where countries were, in the first 
instance, occupied by men of that class, that comparatively few diffi- 
culties take place when intercourse resulted between our merchants 
and the races who inhabit countries where Missionaries are known 
* * * I feel confident that, regarded as a mere money investment, 
the very best investment this country can make, is to send out in 
advance, and far in advance, of either colonists or merchants, Mis- 
sionaries, who may prepare the way for those who are to follow 
them." — From a speech of Sir George Grey, late Governor of New 
Zealand, at a Meeting of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, 
at the Mansion House, July 19th, 1854. 

* New. Zealand is strictly our Antipodes in longitude only, as the 
three islands lie between 34° 22' and 47° 25' of south latitude, and 
between 166° and 180° east longitude. 

b 2 



4 



SCENERY. 



at the time of which we shall have to speak, Ahina-maui, 
or the Northern Island, was the only one that conld be 
said to be inhabited, and onr narrative will therefore 
refer to that alone. 

It is, as every reader knows, very irregularly shaped ; 
its greatest length is about 436 miles, and its breadth 
at the widest part about 180. Travellers speak in the 
most glowing terms of the beauty of its scenery : its 
shores are deeply indented, and the white cliffs of part 
of its western coast, or the high dark rocks on its 
eastern side, furnish scenes that are dwelt upon with 
admiring delight. Here a long, bold promontory 
stretches far into the sea, its summit crowned with 
wood, or with the fortified intrenchments of some war- 
like chief, and its face whitened with the dashing spray 
of the dark blue waves that foam around its base. 
There the shore recedes, and forms a deep and quiet 
bay, studded with rocky islands covered with verdure, 
and enlivened by numbers of cormorants, or sea gulls, 
or the snow-white frigate bird, and probably by the 
fishing canoes of the neighbouring tribe. Beautiful 
flowers grow down to the water's edge, the graceful 
clianthus, the myrtle, and fuchsias of various new and 
unknown kinds ; while the Pohutakawa with its huge 
limbs, like a gnarled English oak, but splendid with 
rich tufts of scarlet flowers, seems to delight in bathing 
its boughs and blossoms in the salt waves of a creek 
or bay. 

As you advance inland the more open grounds are 
covered with species of viola, primula, ranunculus, and 
myosotis, all differing from our own ; # but the English 



* It is a remarkable fact, that though some of the New Zealand 



SCEXEBY. 



5 



eve is perhaps most attracted by the Microcalis Aus- 
tralia, the southern daisy, hearing, as it does, a close 
resemblance to the northern favourite of our childhood. 

Some portions of the country are rather dreary ; they 
somewhat resemble the Scottish moorlands, only that 
the dark fern and flax take the place of the blooming 
heather, and the outline of the hills is less broken and 
picturesque. But in general the scenery is rich and 
romantic, and often varied by high mountains clothed 
almost to their summit with magnificent forests of trees 
unknown in any other portion of the globe. There is 
a solemn grandeur in these primaeval forests, with their 
strange* and luxuriant vegetation. Most of the trees 
are of the pine tribe, and grow to an enormous height. 
The Kauri in particular (Dammera Australis) is the 
glory of the New Zealand Sylva ; it is the largest and 
most majestic of all the family of pines, often growing 
with a straight unbranched stem to the height of a 
hundred feet, and then throwing out a large clustering 

trees and plants are allied to the Australian, American, and even 
European families, the greatest number of species and even of ge- 
nera are peculiar to the country. Not less than sixty new species 
of timber trees have been sent to England, all more or less valuable. 
See Dr. Dieffenbach's New Zealand. 

* Colonel Mundy, in " Our Antipodes," thus speaks of the effect 
produced by this on his own mind. " Every man who has travelled 
at all has travelled through tracts of mountain forest, and has felt 
his soul awed, and elevated, by the romantic and sequestered grand- 
eur of these portions of the universe, which seem too solemn, and too 
sublime, for the permanent abode of busy man. The effect produced 
is still deeper, the wilderness seems wilder still, when every tree 
and shrub, and flower and weed, and every specimen of animated 
nature, is utterly strange and unknown to the traveller, when every 
object is an object of mysterious wonder. Such was my position in 
traversing this forest pass. The blue vault above, and the earth's 
crust on which I trod, appeared to be my only old acquaintances. " 



6 



SCENERY. 



head of branches that towers high above the surround- 
ing trees. Beneath and among these and the other lords 
of the forest, are seen the less aspiring plants ; the 
beautiful tree fern, reaching sometimes to the height 
of thirty feet ; the elegant areca sapida, with its delicate 
foliage ; and the venerable ratu tree, often forty feet in 
circumference, and splendid with its dazzling scarlet 
blossoms ; while graceful creepers, with their various 
coloured nowers, # spread from tree to tree, and form an 
almost impenetrable barrier. 

In the lower regions of the hills these forests are 
enlivened by the notes of birds of the most cheerful 
songf — the parrot ; the wood-pigeon, of rainbow hue ; 
the tui, warbling like our thrush ; and the maJco-mako, 
compared to our English nightingale, save that its song- 
is heard only in the day. Eut there are no other 
living sights or sounds : not an insect wings its way 
across your path ; no squirrel leaps from bough to 
bough, nor does a solitary hedgehog disturb the fallen 
leaves with its gentle tread ; not even a fearful mouse 
puts out its little head to listen to the foot-fall of the 
passer-by. J 

* " There were convolvuli, and clematis, and passiflorae, festooning 
the branches with their light garlands, and enormous brambles, 
covered with little wild roses, clambering up to the summits ot some 
tall tree, and toppling down again in a cascade of bloom." See 
"Our Antipodes." 

•j* These birds, and flowers, serve the New Zealander for an 
almanack. The flowering of the white clematis in October warns him 
that it is time to prepare for planting ; and the note of the koe-koea, 
or New Zealand cuckoo, tells him that his early potatoes are ready- 
to be harvested. 

J Strange to say, no quadruped belongs to New Zealand ; the dogs 
found there by Captain Cook seem evidently to have been brought 
from some other land. 



SCENERY. 



7 



Higher up the mountains, though the trees long re- 
main, and festoons of clematis and other flowers adorn 
their branches, yet even the birds are gone, and the 
silence is unbroken. 

All the foliage is of a rich dark hue, contrasting 
strongly with the bright glaucous green of a New 
Holland landscape,* but emblematic, as it were, of the 
natural character of the people. This abundant veget- 
ation is nourished by innumerable rivulets, that, spring- 
ing from the sides of hills, gradually unite into large 
rivers, and form a network of larger and smaller streams 
over the whole land, affording easy access from one 
part of it to another. 

But the most remarkable portion of New Zealand 
scenery is a line of country stretching from Cape 
Egmont, on the western coast, to White Island, on 
the east ; the result of some of those tremendous con- 
vulsions of the earth's surface produced by volcanic 
agency. — The whole breadth of the island is traversed 
by a succession of extinct volcanoes, all high and rug- 
ged, and some of them reaching the region of per- 
petual snow. In the centre of the island a magnificent 
group of these lofty peaks surrounds a volcano still in 
action, Tongariro, of which many a legendary tale is 
told. Towards the east, a remarkable chain of lakes 
stretches to the coast, and travellers seem never weary 
of expatiating on the grandeur, and beauty, and wonders 
of this portion of the country.f They have given us 
the most animated descriptions of mountains, rocks, 

* Travellers speak very strongly of the contrast, in almost every 
particular, between the scenery of the two countries. 

t Particularly Dr. Dieffenbach and Rev. R. Taylor, in C, M. 
Intelligencer for April, 1850. 



s 



VOLCANIC PHENOMENA. 



and forests, of gushing streams, of basaltic columns 
60 feet in height, standing like the ruins of an ancient 
temple, and all the strange results of subterranean 
fire. The lakes are beautiful ; some tranquil and pure, 
reposing in the bosom of wooded hills, and enlivened 
by some native village built for safety on a projecting 
promontory. Others, disturbed by volcanic phenomena, 
are desolate and deserted : Hotu-kara # is one of this 
latter kind, and is so strongly impregnated with sul- 
phuric acid that its waters cannot be drank; another, 
Eotu-mahana,f is agitated with boiling springs, con- 
tinually throwing high into the air jets of water or of 
steam. These restless springs pierce the numerous 
islands on the lake, and many of these present a curi- 
ous spectacle as the boiling fountains play among the 
trees and shrubs with, which they are adorned. Sud- 
denly the astonished traveller comes in sight of a bold 
flight of apparently marble $ steps ascending from the 
very margin of the lake. They are fifty in number, 
each step is from one to three feet in height, and from 
one to two in breadth. They are all of the purest white, 
except that here and there a roseate tinge has crept 
along the veins ; and rising, as they do, in the midst of 
innumerable fountains similar to those on the islands, 
and surrounded with a mass of dark green fern, they 
seem like the creation of fairy land. — But we must 
not linger among these inviting scenes, we shall only 
recommend our readers to read the full account of 
them in the C. M. Intelligencer for April, 1850,§ 

. * Bitter lake. f Warm lake. 

X They are really formed from the deposit of the warm water, 
even now constantly flowing down them. 

§ See also the Bishop of New Zealand's Journal, in Annals of 
Colonial Church, p. 87. 



LAKE TAUPO. 



9 



Nor must we enter into the details of Roto-rua and 
other insecure villages built on a crust of earth over 
depths of boiling mud — intersected by crevices sending 
forth a constant heated vapour, by hot springs and 
miniature mud volcanoes, where the very ground on 
which you tread is liable at any moment to give way, 
and plunge your foot into the heated mass below. 
TTe shall only ask our readers to accompany us to 
Lake Taupo, almost an inland sea, 36 miles in length. 
It is in the centre of the island, about 12 miles from 
the base of Tongariro. 

There is one spot on the south-western shore of 
this lake at which we desire to pause. At the ex- 
tremity of a range of black basaltic rocks there lies a 
belt of flat alluvial land, stretching inland from the lake 
till it reaches a ridge of low, but abrupt hills, also of 
volcanic origin. Nothing but moss and lichens will 
grow upon the heated surface of these hills : hot 
springs and crevices that emit the boiling vapour 
abound upon their sides ; the boiling mud beneath is 
in many places only covered, as at Botu-rua, with a 
thin crust of earth ; and subterranean noises like the 
working of a steam engine are continually heard. Yet 
on the alluvial land close to this treacherous ground 
the natives had built a village of considerable size, 
called Te Eapa. There was much to tempt them to 
settle there ; the land was fertile, the steaming crevices, 
so near them, served to cook their food,* and they used 
the tepid springs as baths. 

* A layer of fern is first laid over the crevice, the pork and pota- 
toes are placed upon it, all is covered close with more fern, and he- 
fore long the food is, we are told, as thoroughly dressed as in an 
English oven. 



10 



TE HEU HEU. 



The Bey. E. Taylor, the Missionary at Wangarmi, 
had occasion, as we shall hereafter relate, to visit this 
spot in 1845, and was struck with the beauty and 
grandeur of the whole scene. The village itself was 
extremely picturesque, with its strong palisades, its 
carved posts, and native dwellings. Through it ran^a 
bright mountain stream, that had forced its way through 
the ridge of hills behind it ; and in front lay the broad 
expanse of Taupo, with its islands, woods, and moun- 
tains, its black basaltic rocks and bold promontories, 
on which stood more than one fortified village. The 
noble figure of the chief, Te Heu Heu, was in harmony 
with the scene. He was advanced in years, his hair 
was silvery white, so white that his people could com- 
pare it only to the snowy head of the sacred Tongariro, 
but his form was still erect. He was nearly seven feet 
in height, and, clothed in his handsome native mat, 
seemed a perfect model of a INew Zealand chief; while 
the natural dignity of his appearance and manner, and 
the openness and courtesy of his bearing, were the 
admiration of our Missionary. He talked long and 
earnestly with him. Te Heu Heu had been a violent 
opponent of Christianity, and had lately led an expedi- 
tion against some distant Christian villages, in the 
hope of extirpating the new and hated religion. But 
now he was softened, he confessed himself disarmed 
by what he heard, he promised to give up fighting, and 
was very earnest in his entreaties that a Missionary 
might come and live among his people. He even led 
Mr. Taylor to the most beautiful spot in the neigh- 
bourhood, engaging to make it over to him for a Mis- 
sionary settlement. 

Alas ! no Missionary could then be placed there, 



TE IIEU HEU, 



11 



and in a few months Te Hen Hen was beyond the 
reach of that instruction that might have saved his sonl. 

The hills behind the village were, as we have said, of 
volcanic origin they were composed of a kind of argil- 
laceous clay and carbonate of magnesia ; the pent-np gas 
beneath them, that could not find its way to the cre- 
vices in their sides, gradually loosened the soil, and, in 
the spring of 1846, large masses of it fell into the gorge 
of the mountain torrent that flowed through the village, 
and stopped its course. The stream, thus checked, 
swelled into a lake behind the ridge, till from its accu- 
mulated weight the hill-side gave way, and a tremen- 
dous avalanche of mud and stones overwhelmed Te 
Eapa and most of its inhabitants. 

The noble chief might have escaped, but he scorned 
to leave his people exposed to danger ; he stood before 
his dwelling, his silvery hair floating on the wind, call- 
ing on Taniwa, a monster of the deep, to stay the 
coming danger, and perished in the act of supplication 
to his imagined deity ! 

Should the question be asked, " Why was there no 
Missionary to proceed to Te Hapa?" we can only an- 
swer it by another, " Why is not more earnest prayer 
poured forth to the Lord of the harvest, that He will 
send more labourers into His harvest? 5 ' 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. 

" But none saith, Where is God my maker, * * * who teacheth us 
more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the 
fowls of heaven ?" — Job xxxt. 10, 11. 

Beautiful indeed in all its natural scenery was and 
is the island of Ahina-Maiii ; but how different was its 
moral aspect, and how had fallen man marred the beauty 
of God's work ! The present chapter will afford some 
proof of this, as we intend to devote it to the probable 
origin and natural character of the people before we 
relate the discovery of the land of their abode. 

The vegetable productions of New Zealand do not 
differ more from those of the neighbouring islands, 
than does the Maori race from that of the Austral 
Negro, by which New Hollaed, Van Diemen's Land, 
New Gruinea, and the Fiji Archipelago have been 
peopled. The origin of the JSTew Zealanders is confi- 
dently said to be Malay, like that of the Polynesians 
and Sandwich Islanders ; and indeed it appears likely 
that their ancestors came direct from some of these 
islands, for not only do their traditions assert that the 
first inhabitants came from the East in large canoes, — 
but the languages are so similar that a native of Tahiti 
can with very little difficulty hold converse with a 
New Zealander.* 

* There is one peculiarity in all these Oceanic languages which 
we cannot pass over, viz. the use of ttco duals and two plurals in 



13 



There are few subjects more interesting than the 
origin of races ; and none perhaps more perplexing 
than the vast difference that exists between the 
various nations of the earth, as regards their social and 
mental conditions. 

Those who have most deeply studied the whole sub- 
ject, and most carefully compared the affinities of 
language, and the almost identity of ancient monu- 
ments,* in countries widely separated from each other, 
tell us, and it would seem they tell us truly, that the 
cradle of mankind after the deluge lay in the high table 
land of western Central Asia. They tell us it was 
from hence that, either by G-od's command, as in the 
days of Peleg,f or by His judgments, as at Babel's 
tower, or by His subsequent more usual providential 
leadings, the whole earth was gradually overspread. 

the first persons of personal and possessive pronouns. The Jirst 
dual is used thus, " we, taua, are going ;" i. e. you and I, when no 
other person is present. The second dual, maua, when you and I out 
of several others is meant. In the same way the Jirst plural, " We, 
tatou, are going," is used when all the party present are included ; 
the second plural, matou, when speaking of only a few out of those 
present. The same words with the prefix of To or Ta — are used 
for possessive pronouns, viz. To taua, your own and mine; To 
maua, your own and mine, out of others ; To tatou, our, belonging 
to all ; To matou, our, belonging to a few of or out of many. These 
languages are said to be evidently sister dialects to the Malay, and 
some others in the Philippine Islands, and in Java. There are only 
fourteen letters in the New Zealand alphabet, C, F, G, J, L, S, and 
several others, are wanting. See Dr. Dieffenbaeh. 

* A remarkable instance of this occurs in the Cromlechs that have 
lately been discovered on the western slopes of the Ghauts, in South- 
ern India, which are so similar to those of our own land, (Kitt's 
Coty House, &c.,) as to leave little or no doubt of their having 
been erected by contemporaneous and allied races, and for a similar 
purpose, whether for worship or for sepulture, 

t See Dr. Candlehh on Gen. x. 



14 



OKIGIX. 



It was not however by means of one continuous 
stream that this was effected, but as civilization pro- 
gressed, and the land from time to time became too 
strait for its increasing population, successive torrents 
poured down, at probably long intervals, from their 
central home, and deluging the surrounding countries, 
drove the earlier occupiers farther and farther on, till 
they found refuge in the fastnesses of mountain ranges, 
or in the distant coasts and isles of the sea. 

But adopting this theory as more than probable, the 
problem still remains unsolved; and we still ask, 
, "What should have hindered the earlier emigrants 
from making progress in civilization, proportioned in 
some degree to those portions of our own race that re- 
mained nearer to their ancient home?" How is it 
that among the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, 
and Eomans, and among the Persians, Chinese, and 
Hindoos, literature and the mechanical arts should 
have attained so high a point, while the natives of 
North and South America,* of Africa, of ail the islands 
in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, have never even in- 
vented an alphabet for themselves, nor discovered the 
art of manufacturing a wheel ? 

Surely the only solution of this problem is, that as 
it is " the Most High who divided to the nations their 
inheritance," f so with regard to even the simplest arts 
of life, " This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, 
who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in work- 
ing," J and giveth or withholdeth according to the good 
pleasure of His will. 

* Central America seems at one time to have belonged to the 
civilized portion of mankind. 

f Deut. xxxii. 8. J Isa. xxviii. 29. 



CHARACTER. 



15 



This question is the more strongly forced upon us in 
the case of jNTew Zealand, as the physical and mental con- 
stitution of the Maori race seem peculiarly fitted for pro- 
gress in every art of civilized life. In person they are 
tall and well-proportioned, strongly built, and capable of 
enduring great fatigue and hardship ; while their clear 
brown complexion, their regular and often handsome 
features, and their fine dark eyes, were, even in their 
savage state, often lighted up with an intelligence and 
feeling that indicated a susceptibility to the best im- 
pressions. Their understandings, uncultivated as they 
were, were quick and penetrating, their conversation 
was lively and animated, and their love of humour 
irrepressible. Their moral character was full of con- 
tradictions ; at one time selfish, proud, and treacher- 
ous, they seemed intent only on the aggrandizement 
of themselves or their tribe, or the gratification of 
their own wild wills, rejoicing in the misery and 
destruction of all beside. At another, the friendli- 
ness, hospitality, generosity, and even heroism of their 
conduct, won the admiration and affection of their 
European friends. They treated their friends and 
elders with the greatest respect and veneration ; and 
their wives occupied a higher position than is usual in 
uncivilized nations, being often consulted in private, 
and sometimes even admitted to the public councils of 
the tribe. The affection of the fathers for their chil- 
dren was intense, and their grief at losing them propor- 
tionably deep. The love of the mother appears to 
have been less strong, and instances of infanticide not 
unfrequently occurred ; though we believe these were 
perpetrated generally in revenge for some neglect of 



10 



WAR CANOES. 



the husband, or perhaps to escape the trouble of rear- 
ing the child. 

Impetuous and daring, the New Zealander courted 
rather than shrunk from danger ; and the spirit of en- 
terprise led many of the young chiefs to venture as 
common sailors on board the whalers that frequented 
their coasts, in the hope of visiting other lands, and 
becoming acquainted with other nations. # 

Their favourite pursuit was war, nothing else seemed 
worthy of their energies ; and the custom of " utu" or 
demanding a payment in human life, for any insult or 
injury, real or supposed, of however remote a date,f 
was always at hand to supply them with a pretext for 
attacking a weaker tribe, and indulging the spirit of 
revenge that lay deep within their breasts. 

Feeling themselves lords of the ocean, their great 
delight was in their war-canoes ; and they lavished all 
their skill and taste in making and adorning them. 
These formidable vessels were simple in their construc- 
tion, and, when practicable, made from the hollowed stem 
of a single tree. They were often seventy or eighty feet 
in length, and would contain two hundred men. The 
sail was triangular, something like the lateen sails of 
the Mediterranean, and woven of flax or rushes. There 
were sometimes fifty paddles on each side, a paddle 
also served them as a rudder, and their speed was 
about seven knots an hour. The head and stern rose 
high above the hull, and, as well as the margin of the 

* They too often paid dearly for this love of enterprise, in the 
brutal treatment they received on board. 

f There were instances in which forty years had elapsed since the 
offence was committed. 



WAE. 



17 



boat itself, were elaborately carved, in some places in- 
laid with a pearly shell, and ornamented with feathers. 

The Maoris' hatred of their enemies equalled their 
attachment to their friends, and a New Zealand battle- 
field presented a more than usually frightful scene. 
The preparatory war-dance was accompanied with tre- 
mendous yells and shoutings ; the impetuous stamping 
of the feet made the very ground to tremble; and every 
face and limb was distorted till they scarcely seemed 
to be human beings * — all their mats were laid aside, 
their naked bodies were smeared with red and yellow 
ochre, and the parrots' feathers in their hair were sup- 
posed to add to the fierceness of their appearance. The 
older women of the tribe, daubed also with ochre, often 
accompanied the men to the field, dancing and yelling, 
and instigating to deeds of daring and cruelty.- The 
younger women and the slaves remained a little way 
behind ; to them were committed the prisoners and the 
slain ; the bodies of the latter they were to prepare 
for the feast, and their heads were to be embalmed as 
trophies. 

Destruction and devastation followed every battle ; 
the victorious party laid waste the country, burnt the 
villages, destroyed the plantations, and dragged away 
the women and children into perpetual bondage. The 
native Maori weapons were a "pattoo," or long spear, 
tipped with a sharp stone, and a "mery," or flat club, 
made of the green jade of the southern island ; and 
these had proved sufficiently destructive in the hands 

* " What nearer approach to demons," said Captain Fitzroy, on 
witnessing one of these dances, " could be made by human beings, 
than is made by New Zealanders when maddening themselves for 
battle, by this dance of death ? " 



IS 



SLAVES. 



of so savage a people. The introduction of the musket 
by the whalers that frequented the Bay of Islands in- 
creased the destruction and the misery ; and the beauti- 
ful Ahina-maui seemed destined to become depopulated. 

The treatment of the prisoners and the captives was 
most barbarous ; they were the absolute property of 
their master, to be dealt with exactly as he pleased ; 
and dreadful tales are told of the use too often made of 
this power. Hard work, hunger, and contempt were 
the every-day portions of these unhappy slaves ; the 
slightest offence was punished with stripes ; and their 
sufferings whether of body or of mind were the subjects 
of derision and merriment. The by-standers often 
would amuse themselves by mimicking the groan of 
pain and the writhe of agony of the sick or d)ing slave ; 
and not unfrequently the passing Missionary has been 
the only being to take to the poor sufferer a little 
water to cool his burning lips, or to assist him to move 
his aching limbs. 

The life of a slave was held more cheap than that of 
a very dog ; and a fit of passion # or some sudden im- 
pulse was often sufficient to lift the hatchet of a chief 
against the man who had perhaps long and faithfully 
served him, but who was now doomed not only to 
death, but to satisfy the unnatural appetite of his 
master. 

* Men of the same tribe rarely quarrelled, and never struck each 
other. Should any dispute occur, and one of the disputants feel his 
anger rising above control, instead of venting it on his opponent, 
he would rush away and destroy the first article of his own property 
he met with. Sometimes a canoe was cut to pieces, but the hatchet 
more frequently descended on one of his oion slaves, who was after- 
Wards eaten. Instances have occurred in which a friendly chief has 
been the victim. See Chapter XV. 



19 



Death must always be an unwelcome visitor to those 
who know not the God of their salvation ; and to the 
Xew Zealanders, with their strong affections, it was al- 
most intolerable anguish to be separated from those they 
loved. Their own death they contemplated with alarm 
and dismay, and lavished every token of sorrow and 
respect upon the remains of any deceased member of 
their family. The body was laid out upon a bier ; the 
nearest relatives assembled round it with green boughs 
wreathed about their heads ; the men sat on the ground 
in mournful silence, while the deep, loud wailings of 
the women, and the blood flowing from the gashes 
they had made in their faces, arms, and necks, testified 
their grief for the departed. In the case of an " ariki" 
or chief, the head was sometimes embalmed and pre- 
served to be wept over by surviving friends ; the bones 
were for some time preserved in a kind of chest made 
of carved wood, and placed in some chosen spot near 
the dwelling, whence, at the end of a few months, 
they were removed with great ceremony to some sepul- 
chral cave. 

One or more slaves, according to the rank and age of 
the departed, were always killed and eaten, that he might 
not lack attendants in another world ; and though there 
was no law for the self-immolation of the widow, yet 
where the attachment had been very strong, as often 
was the case, the head wife generally hung herself, and 
was held in honour for so doing. 

With regard to the religion of the New Zealanders ; 
all the accounts we have seen have been so vague, that 
we are inclined to believe they had themselves no very 
distinct ideas on the subject. They had an undefined 
and confused notion of some supernatural power they 
c 2 



20 



BELIGIO*-. 



called " Atua" but this term was likewise often ap- 
plied to anything incomprehensible to them, even to 
inanimate objects, such as a watch, a barometer, or a 
compass. 

There were many inferior deities * whom they held in 
reverence, and to whom they offered prayers and in- 
cantations ; but their religion, like that of all heathen 
nations, was one of fear, and their supplications were 
for the most part addressed to some evil principle, to 
deprecate expected calamities. 

The souls of their departed chiefs were considered as 
a kind of inferior Atuas, capable of doing either good 
or harm to those on earth. When the spirit of an 
ariki left the body, it ascended, they thought, to the 
skies, and there leaving its left eye to become a star, 
descended again to earth, and travelled down a rocky 
cliff near the JSTorth Cape to "Beinga," the place of 
the departed, where they follow the same pursuits as 
while on earth. Occasionally these spirits re-visit their 
former abodes, but they are never seen; and their 
voices are only heard by some of their fellow arikis, or 
by the tokungas or priests. 

These tohungas, as may be supposed, exercised great 
influence over the people. The kumeraf field must not 
be touched, nor the potatoes dug up, till the tohunga 
had performed his incantations ; nor was the horrible 
banquet of victory partaken of till he had blessed it by 

* For instance, Maui who fished up the island from the bottom of 
the sea ; hence its name, Ahina-Maui, the child of Maui. Sir 
George Grey's late work, " Polynesian Mythology," contains some 
very curious stories of the exploits of this demi-god, such as his 
catching the Sun in a noose to hinder its speed, that the days might 
be longer ! 

f Sweet potato. 



RELIGION. 



21 



taking a piece of the flesh, eating part of it himself, and 
hanging the rest on a tree as an offering to the Atua. 
But there were no definite acts of public worship 
among this people ; no processions, no religious festivals, 
either stated or occasional ; and the only ofiice of the 
tohunga that could be considered as a regular religious 
ceremony, was a sort of baptism undergone by every 
child when a few months old. On these occasions, the 
priest took a green bough, -dipped it in water, and 
sprinkled the child with it, all the time muttering in- 
cantations, devoting it to some evil spirit, probably the 
god of war, and praying for its bravery and success.* 

It is confidently asserted on the authority of the 
people themselves, that whatever worship they paid to 
their Atuas was direct, and without mtervening sym- 
bols, that the distorted figures cut in jade and worn 
round the neck, or carved in wood on their utensils, 
were not idols, but merely memorials of some ancestor 
or departed hero ; and the contempt with which they at 
first treated the Popish images and crucifixes, seems 
to confirm this. And yet it is dim cult to understand 
how persons, who in other cases could so skilfully imi- 
tate the human face and features,! could make such 
hideous figures as representations of their ancestors. 

* We have not met with any account of the origin of this rite. 

f While Hongi was at Parramatta, in 1814, for a few weeks, Mr. 
Marsden laughingly told him he should cut off his head and send 
it to England, to show his friends the tattooing with which it was 
ornamented, unless he could carve one like his own. Upon which 
the chief, without any hesitation, took the top of a wooden post, 
made a graving tool for himself from a piece of iron hoop, and cut 
out a very good likeness of himself, marking the pattern of the tat- 
tooing most correctly. This head was sent home, and we believe is 
still in the Church Missionary House. There is an engraving of it 
in the Quarterly Paper for Michaelmas, 1816. 



22 



TAPU. 



The most remarkable of the religious observances oi 
]STew Zealand was the " tapu " or " taboo," which, how- 
ever injurious and absurd in some of its requirements, 
tended in other points to prevent the wanton destruc- 
tion of life and property. For instance, a field planted 
with kumeras was "tapu;" so was a house left for a 
time unoccupied ; so also a canoe left on the beach, a 
storehouse of food, a tree fit for a canoe, &c. None of 
these must be touched, save by the owner ; or " Atua " 
would be offended, and punish the transgressor. A 
canoe in which any one had been drowned was " tapu," 
and must be broken up ; the chief cone of the volcano 
of Tongariro was " tapu," and must not be approached ; 
nor must the hair of another person's head be touched. 
If the blood of a chief had been spilt, the instrument, 
however innocent, was " tapu," and became the property 
of the injured person. We read of a meeting among the 
natives that was to be held on the shores of the Taupo 
Lake. The presence of Te Heu Heu was desired, and 
a new and highly ornamented canoe was sent to fetch 
him. As he stepped into it, a splinter pricked his foot ; 
the wound was very trifling, but a few drops of blood 
flowed ; immediately every one quitted the vessel, an- 
other was sent for, and the offending canoe was hauled 
up on the beach, and became the property of the 
wounded chief. 

In many points, however, the "tapu" was attended 
with inconvenience and suffering, particularly when it 
was applied to persons instead of things only. Women 
were tapu while engaged in cultivating the land, men 
and women while attending the sick or engaged in the 
long-continued funeral ceremonies, &c, &c. ; and while 
under it, must not touch a stranger, nor take food with 



TAPU. 



23 



tlieir own hands ; but must be fed by others. # Any 
departure from the strict laws of tapu was punished 
with death. But the most painful part of the system 
was the necessity it laid upon all sick persons to be 
immediately removed from their own house, and placed 
under an open shed, or sometimes only under a fence, 
till they should recover or die, and where of course 
their sufferings were aggravated by exposure to the 
weather. We meet with many instances of this, and 
will briefly mention one that is related by Mr. Clarke, 
who writing in May, 1824, the beginning of their win- 
ter, says, " I went with Mr. Kemp and Mr. Puckey 
to see a sick chief named Whyduah ; we found him 
lying under a rush fence, intended to shelter him from 
the wind. The priest was lying by his side, and the 
ground all round was " tapu,' ' except a narrow path by 
which the slaves, of whom there were many in attend- 
ance, brought the food. "We reasoned with him on the 
risk of lying thus exposed to the sun by day, and to 
the cold by night ; but the chief paid no attention, he 
was entirely under the influence of the priest, and 
dared not do the smallest thing without his leave. 
We proposed to feel his pulse — but were referred to 
the priest, who gave a reluctant permission. The poor 
man had a cold, and a little cough, but no bad symp- 
toms; and if properly treated would probably have 
been well again in a very few days. We offered him 
some of our food, but he must eat nothing cooked over 
our fires, nor must he move from the present spot till 
he was better ; of which under his present treatment 

* The New Zealanders, even when not under tapu, never allowed 
their lips to touch the calabash from which they drank, but poured 
the water from it into their mouths, like the Hindoos. 



24 



TAPU. 



there could be no hope. The poor man attributed his 
present illness to disobedience to the priest, who a day 
or two before had forbidden him to eat anything on a 
long journey he had to perform. As he was returning, 
feeling very faint and tired, he ventured to take a little 
food, and was immediately afterwards seized with so 
much pain in his limbs that he could scarcely get 
home, which he said was sent him by the Atua as a 
punishment for disobeying the priest, nor would he 
listen to any arguments as to its being the effect of cold 
and fatigue. A few days later we visited him again, 
he was on the same spot, and his disease had gained 
ground, but though pleased to see us, he would not 
shake hands with us, as he said the Atua had punished 
him for letting us feel his pulse by depriving him of 
the use of that arm !" In what worse than iron bond- 
age does the god of this world hold his captives ! 

We will now turn to the time when these islands 
became first known to European navigators. 



CHAPTER III. 



DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND — CAPTAIN COOK — FOOD AND 
CLOTHING OF THE NATIVES. 

" Tliou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, * * * for this thing 
the Lord shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou 
puttest thine hand unto." — Deut. xv. 8, 10. 

Sixteen centuries had passed away since the Sun of 
righteousnesshadrisenon the earth, and still His beams 
were hidden -from these Southern Islands ; and Ahina- 
maui still lay in darkness and in misery, its very 
existence unknown to the Christian nations of the 
earth. 

At length, in the year 1642, the enterprising Tas- 
man, who had been sent by the Dutch governor of 
Java in search of the supposed Australian continent, 
after discovering Van Diem en's Land, and bestowing 
on it the name of his master, turned his course towards 
the east, and in a few days came in sight of other un- 
known shores.^ 

He found it however impossible to land; the fearless 
natives, unawed by the appearance of his ships, so 
different from any they could have seen before, made 
an unpxovoked attack upon his boats ; and Tasman, 
seeing from the number of the canoes that began to 
approach him, and the determined gestures of the 
people, that the ships themselves would be in jeopardy ? 

* Some geographers suppose that this was the country described 
by Juan Fernandez as being visited by him in 1576 ; and if so it is 
probable that he introduced the dogs found there by Captain Cook. 



26 



DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND. 



prudently gave up the attempt, and steered away from 
the inhospitable coast. 

New Zealand, for so Tasman called the country in 
memory of his native land, was soon forgotten ; and 
more than another century elapsed before it was again 
heard of. 

Our noble-spirited countryman, Captain Cook, re-dis- 
covered it in 1769, in the course of his first voyage round 
the world ; and though on his first approach to the 
island his ignorance of the character and customs of the 
people led unintentionally to the loss of four New Zea- 
land lives, yet such was the steady gentle discipline he 
maintained among his crew, and such was the influence 
his firm, yet friendly conduct gained over the natives, 
that not one other drop of either English or Maori 
blood was shed during the five visits he paid the island 
between October, 1769, and February, 1777.* 

Captain Cook was much interested in the people ; 
their manly bearing and their bold demeanour attracted 
his admiration, but he lamented their ignorance and 
wretchedness, and with the enlightened philanthropy 
that characterized him, he spared no pains to improve 
their condition. 

Science owes much to the discoveries and accurate 
observations of this distinguished navigator ; the charts 
he laid down of the coasts have been adopted as the 
groundwork of all succeeding ones ; but the grateful 
recollection of him that has been cherished by the 
natives themselves, is a far more fragrant wreath upon 
his tomb, than any that science can have woven for it. 

* Woiild that this could be said in other instances, but even the 
consort ship of Captain Cook lost some of her men, and some of the 
Maoris were also killed. 



CAPTAIN COOK. 



27 



Captain Cook was particularly struck with the want 
of proper food among these islanders. "We have be- 
fore spoken of the rich abundance of noble trees and 
lovely flowers with which the land abounded ; but not- 
withstanding the fertile soil and almost unrivalled 
climate # of New Zealand, there is perhaps no country 
in the world, except the Arctic regions, that is in itself 
so destitute of sustenance for man. Neither grain nor 
wholesome fruit is indigenous there, nor any edible 
root except that of a species of fern.f This was roast- 
ed and beaten into a sort of cake, and with the addition, 
at some seasons of the year, of fish, formed origin- 
ally the only food of the inhabitants. In later times, 
according to traditionary lore, the kumera,J or sweet 
potato, was introduced by a woman named E Pani, who 
with her husband once visited these shores from some 
distant island called Tawai, and pitying the condition 
of the people, heroically returned again alone in the 
canoe to her native place, and brought back some 
kumeras for cultivation. The plant rapidly increased ; 
and E Pani was rewarded for her courage and bene- 
volence by being made an inferior deity, and placed 
by the side of Maui. 

The compassion of our countryman was not less 
strongly excited than that of E Pani had been, and at 
every visit he paid the island he endeavoured to add 
something to it*e comforts of the people, never failing 

* On the eastern coast the thermometer seldom falls below 40° or 
rises above 66° ; on the western the range is somewhat wider, but 
even in the interior a thin crust of ice on standing water is seldom 
seen on the lower grounds. The air is singularly clear and trans- 
parent, and notwithstanding the frequent rains, is the theme of every 
traveller's praise. 

f Pteris esculenta. % Convolvulus Batata. 



28 



INTRODUCTION OF FOOD. 



to bring European seeds and roots for cultivation. 
But with the pride and incredulity of ignorant minds, 
they could not be prevailed on to cultivate any that 
did not bear some resemblance to those they had al- 
ready seen. The common potato threw out its tubers 
like the lmmera ; the turnip,* too, bore a not dissi- 
milar appearance, and these were therefore gladly 
welcomed. The cabbage # was not unlike the upper 
shoot of the Areca Sapida, and this was also admitted 
into their horticulture ;f but peas, and beans, and car- 
rots, and wheat, were unlike anything they had seen 
before ; and as therefore they could not be fitting food 
for man, they were discarded. 

Captain Cook was more successful in his attempt to 
introduce the pig ; though how, with all their preju- 
dices, they could ever have admitted pork into their 
bills of fare we are at a loss to divine. Yet so it was, 
and the rearing of pigs and cultivation of the potato 
soon spread throughout the island, till by degrees the 
New Zealanders had not only enough for their own 

* Neither tlie turnip nor the cabbage, however, seem to have 
made their way beyond Cook's Straits, the chief resort of Captain 
Cook, but there they grew luxuriantly. The cabbage has now be- 
come wild along the Straits, and we are told that in spring the 
northern shore for some space inland is resplendent with its yellow 
blossoms, still recording, as it were, in letters of gold, the benevo- 
lence that introduced so valuable an acquisition. 

f Colonel Mundy, writing in 1847, speaks of a very aged chief 
named Taniwha, who remembered Captain Cook, and who in de- 
scribing him, " mimics," says Col. Mundy, "a way he had of waving 
his right hand to and fro wherever he walked. The veteran, then 
a child of seven or eight years old, has no conception of the mean- 
ing of this strange gesture. It remains," continues Col. Mundy, 
" for us to guess. Our great navigator Avas sowing the seeds of 
Europe in the wilds of Ahina-maui, plucking them from his 
pockets, and casting them on promising soil." 



DWELLINGS. 



29 



consumption, but were able to supply the trading ves- 
sels that soon after began to frecpient their shores. 

"Water was the New Zealanders' only beverage, and 
so averse were they to any intoxicating liquors, that it 
was many years before they yielded to the persuasions 
of unprincipled Europeans to taste a second time of 
"liquid fire." 

Their general habits remained unchanged from the 
time of Captain Cook's visits till they were brought 
under the modifying influence of Christianity and civil- 
ization. Their dwellings were constructed of a frame- 
work of wood interwoven with reeds and rushes (called 
raupo). This interweaving was often painted in pat- 
terns of black and red, and the upright posts and the 
ridge pole of the roof were frequently elaborately 
carved, especially in the southern part of the island, 
where the carvings were intended to represent the an- 
cestors of the family ; and as at the death of each suc- 
cessive occupier of the house, his figure was added to 
the group, the dwelling became a sort of genealogical 
tree. 

The end of the roof usually projected some space 
beyond the walls, and, supported by carved pillars, 
formed a portico, in which the family took their meals ; 
for the interior apartment was tapued from any other 
purpose than sitting or sleeping in, or the weaving of 
the mats. There was no aperture but one low door, 
and though the raupo walls admitted no inconsiderable 
amount of air, yet the dirty habits of the inmates, 
added to the smoke from the fire in the centre of the 
hut, rendered the atmosphere at times intolerable to 
an European. 

Their food was cooked by slaves in a separate hut, 



30 



TATTOOIITG. 



and when the time of meals arrived, let the weather be 
what it might, the family assembled out of doors, in 
front of their dwelling. The slaves having divided the 
food into equal portions, and placed each portion in a 
separate little basket made of flax, brought it round 
and duly distributed it. When all had finished, a 
slave again came round with a calabash of water, and 
poured some into the mouth of each one present. 

One of the most singular customs of the Maoris 
was that of tattooing, invented, we should suppose, not 
only to make the men look more terrible in battle, but 
also to test their power of endurance. The operation 
was exquisitely painful — the person to be tattooed was 
laid on his back ; a pattern more or less intricate, ac- 
cording to his rank and pretensions, was first traced on 
his face, arms, and breast, with a charred stick; in- 
cisions were then made, according to this pattern, by a 
sharp kind of chisel, made of bone, driven in by a 
mallet till the blood flowed freely ; and the chisel-like 
instrument having been previously dipped in some dark 
pigment, the lines remained indelibly fixed. It was 
but seldom that the whole could be done at one time, 
the suffering was too great to bear ; # and it often re- 
quired weeks and even months to complete the tattoo- 

* Rutherford, a sailor, who was taken prisoner by the natives in 
1816, and who, after all the rest of the crew of his ship had been 
murdered and eaten before his eyes, was made a chief, and conse- 
quently had to submit to this initiation, had the fortitude to under- 
go the whole at once, but did not recover the effects of it for six 
weeks. After a forced residence there of ten years, he made his 
escape, and on his return to England published a full and authentic 
account of his own extraordinary adventures, and of the manners 
and customs of the natives. He must have been residing somewhere 
in the south-eastern part of the island. We believe he afterwards 
took up his residence in one of the Polynesian Islands. 



DRESS. 



31 



ing of a man of superior rank or courage — pre-eminence 
in these qualities requiring pre-eminence in self-tor- 
ture. There seems to have been no particular age at 
which this painful honour was conferred. Sometimes 
boys of eight or ten were tattooed ; sometimes it was de- 
ferred till grown up ; and a very few instances are men- 
tioned in which it was not submitted to at all.* The 
barbarous custom extended also to the women ; some 
aspiring ladies were tattooed like the men, only in 
simpler patterns, but all * had their lips performed 
upon ; the redness of lip, so prized in civilized countries, 
was there held in disrepute. 

The dress both of men and women consisted of, so- 
called, mats, i. e, large squares of woven flax. One of 
these was fastened round the waist and fell just below 
the knees ; the other thrown over the shoulders nearly 
covered the upper part of the body. These mats were 
manufactured exclusively by the women ; they pre- 
pared the flax, twisted it into a sort of twine, and then, 
after winding this thread backwards and forwards over 
pegs fastened into the ground and thus forming a warp, 
began the tedious process of weaving with the hand. 
It was no wonder that with such inadequate imple- 
ments the work was slow, that a common mat required 
six months to finish it, and that one of a superior kind 
could rarely be completed in less than two or three 
years. — And whatever we may think of this people's 
deficiency in mechanical invention, we cannot with- 
hold from their women the meed of praise for industry 
and patience. The women in the neighbourhood of 
the river Thames were renowned for their skill and 

* One of these was Ruatara, of whom we shall hereafter speak. 



32 



DRESS. 



taste in this manufacture, and some of the borders of 
their mats, woven in elaborate patterns of black, red, 
and blue, are very handsome even in European estim- 
ation. 

Both men and women frequently wore grotesque 
figures of jade round their necks, but their favourite 
ornament was feathers, and Mr. Marsden relates an 
amusing incident that occurred during his first visit to 
the island, that shows the love of dress is not confined 
to the polished nations of the earth. 

In an exploring expedition he made along the coast 
towards the south, he was accompanied by several 
chiefs of the Bay of Islands, some of whom thought it 
a good opportunity for trade, and provided themselves 
with nails, fishing-hooks, &c, and one of the party took 
also with him a supply of choice feathers prepared in a 
manner peculiar to the northern part of the island. — 
In the course of barter the chief observed a very hand- 
some mat worn by the wife of one of the Thames 
chiefs ; and determined, if possible, to procure it for 
his own wife, but found the owner unwilling to part 
with it, and not to be moved by any of the ordinary 
articles of traffic. He then thought of trying his 
feathers, and taking out a few of the least valuable, 
placed them in the hair of some of the other women 
present, where, as they gracefully fluttered in the 
breeze, they soon attracted the attention of the lady of 
the mat, who became impatient to possess herself of 
so becoming an ornament. The chief in vain offered 
to give her some in exchange for the mat, but she still 
refused, till taking some of the choicest feathers from 
his box and displaying them before her to the greatest 
advantage, he adroitly laid them at her feet. The 



DRESS. 



33 



temptation was irresistible, she threw off the mat and 
seized the feathers ; nor could any young lady of fashion 
in London or Paris have been more delighted with a 
diamond aigrette, than was this Maori matron with her 
plume from the snowy albatross.* 

* It is however a remarkable characteristic of this people that, 
though very fond of their own native ornaments, in their subsequent 
dealings with Europeans no articles ever attracted their notice un- 
less they were useful. Beads and gew-gaws they utterly despised ; 
while a nail, a fish-hook, or even a piece of iron hoop, would purchase 
a good supply of food, and a hatchet was irresistible. 



D 



CHAPTEE IV. 



REV. S. MARSDEN. — TIPPAHEE. 

" How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? 99 

Rom. x. 14. 

Eoe a few moments we suspend our narrative, to pay 
our tribute to the memory of Captain Cook. The be- 
nevolent exertions of this good and great man in behalf 
of the barbarous nations he fell in with, sprung from 
Christian principle. Love to God and man was the 
ruling motive of his life ; and while benefiting distant 
lands, he spared no pains to promote the comfort and to 
maintain the morality, as well as discipline, of his own 
crew. 

Had his example been followed by succeeding voy- 
agers, or even had the New Zealanders been treated 
with only common humanity and uprightness, how 
much guilt would have been avoided, how much human 
life would have been spared, and what cause would the 
natives have had to rejoice in this opening communi- 
cation with England and her dependencies ! But it was 
far otherwise ; and the intercourse that in consequence 
of our great navigator's discoveries commenced, towards 
the end of the last century, between the people of 
New Zealand and other countries, was far from being 
calculated to improve the moral condition of the Maori 
race, or to give them any favourable impressions of 
Christianity. The trade with New South Wales con- 



REV. S. MAES DEN. 



sisted in the exchange of cargoes of the fine timber, 
with which the Island abounded, for some of the 
commonest articles of English hardware ; and when, a 
few years later, the South Sea whalers from England 
resorted to New Zealand for provisions, they also found 
that the most acceptable payment was in nails and fish- 
hooks. 

Too soon however in both these cases the traffic de- 
generated into a system of fraud and violence, where the 
treachery, cruelty, and bad faith of the Europeans roused 
the indignation of the savage to acts of the fiercest re- 
venge, often, alas! followed by retaliation on the part of 
the first aggressors. The few scattered notices we have of 
Maori history during all. this period are little else than 
tales of massacre and bloodshed ; or at best of New 
Zealanders torn from their families and their homes, 
and, when no longer wanted on board the vessel, left to 
perish in some distant island.* And yet so carefully 
did the original authors of these calamities keep out of 
sight their own guilt in the transactions, that, both in 
England and in New South "Wales, the ferocity of the 
Maoris was supposed to be unprovoked ; the very name 
of New Zealand was held in abhorrence ; and its people 
were considered as untameable savages fitted only for 
destruction. 

But there was one eye in New South "Wales that saw 
things in a tilier light, one heart that yearned over the 
wretchedness of his fellow-men, that knew the provo- 
cations that were given them, and felt that the greater 

* There were however a few honourable exceptions to this state- 
ment: among others, Captain King, Governor of Norfolk Island, 
and afterwards of Port Jackson, made several attempts to benefit the 
New Zealanders, but unhappily without success. 

d 2 



86 



HEY. S. MARS DEX. 



their depravity, the more determined should be the 
efforts of Christians to reclaim them. 

The Rev. Samuel Marsden,* — a name ever to be had 
in honour by all who love God and man, and without 
whom the beautiful Polynesian Islands would not have 
known the blessings brought to them by the London 
Missionary Society,— had been in 1792 appointed Chap- 
lain at Port Jackson; and carrying out with him a strong 
and sound faith, a firm unyielding principle, and a glow- 
ing zeal and love that longed for the salvation of all man- 
kind, his long chaplaincy became the greatest bless- 
ing the Southern Hemisphere has ever known. To 
him was given the rare privilege of benefiting, not 
individuals merely, but whole races of his fellow-beings, 

We wish we knew more precisely how and when 
this good man became interested in the Maori race ; t 
but all we have been able to ascertain is, that in the 
year 1806, an influential chief, named Tippahee, and 

* "VVe do not know the place of Mr. Marsden's birth, but be was 
originally brought up as a blacksmith. He was led to Chuist while 
young, and while giving his own heart to his Saviour felt so ardent 
a desire to be the instrument of leading others to know Him also, 
that in 1786, when about twenty-two years of age, he applied to the 
Elland Society to receive him. They did so, educated him, sent him 
to College, and prepared him for the ministry ; and among the many 
devoted and excellent ministers whom the Church owes to that 
Society, for none- may she feel more grateful than for Samuel 
Marsden. 

f Since writing the above we find that on Mr. Marsden's last visit 
to New Zealand, in 1837, he mentioned to Mr. Matthews that the 
first New Zealanders he had seen were two chiefs, Toki and Hum, 
whom Captain King had taken to Norfolk Island, and subsequently 
to Port Jackson, in the hope of their giving useful information on 
the culture of flax. Captain King failed in his project, but he had 
the privilege of conferring on the Maoris the inestimable b2ncnt of 
bringing their race under the notice of Mr. Marsden, 



TIPPAHEE. 



S7 



his four sons, urged by a spirit" of inquiry as to other 
lands, worked their way to Port Jackson in one of the 
trading vessels. It would be very interesting to trace 
out his first adventures there, his meeting with Mr. 
Marsclen, &c, but we can only give a few unconnected 
details of the history. 

Mr. Marsden soon got into friendly intercourse with 
the chief, and found that this tattooed savage was en- 
dowed with a mind superior to any thing he could 
have anticipated. He found him intelligent and eager 
for knowledge, and most anxious for the welfare and 
improvement of his people ; while his natural tact and 
courtesy of manner made him no unfitting guest at the 
table of the governor.* The arts of life he saw at Port 
Jackson rendered him the more alive to the ignorance 
and degraded state of his countrymen ; and so painfully 
did he feel this, that upon being one day taken to a 
common rope-walk to see the process of spinning twine 

* A little incident that occurred one day when dining with a large 
party at Government House showed Tippahee's shrewdness of ob- 
servation, and courage in expressing his opinion. A discussion arose 
as to our penal code ; he could not reconcile our punishment of theft 
with his own sense of justice, maintaining that stealing food when 
perhaps the thief was hungry ought not to he so severely punished. 
He was told, in reply, that according to English law every man who 
took the property of another was liable to be put to death. " Then," 
exclaimed he with animation, addressing the governor, " why do you 

not hang Captain pointing to a gentleman then at table ; 

<l Captain , he come to New Zealand, he come ashore, and 

tiki (stole) my potatoes ; you hang Captain ." The Captain 

was covered with confusion, for the charge was true ; like most of 
the commanders of vessels, he had, when off the coast, and in want 
of potatoes, sent a boat's crew on shore, dug up Tippahee's plantation, 
and carried off the produce without offering him the slightest re- 
muneration. 



38 



TIFPAHEE. 



and fishing-lines, and of manufacturing rope, he burst 
into tears, exclaiming, " New Zealand no good." 

Mr. Mars den had much conversation with him on 
the possibility of forming an European settlement in 
the Island similar to that in Tahiti, which was now 
beginning to rejoice the hearts of the devoted and self- 
forgetting men who had planned and executed it ; and 
found the chief willing to assist in any undertaking 
that promised such advantages to his native land. Tip- 
pahee returned home laden with presents from the go- 
vernor, of the most useful kind — agricultural tools, seed 
wheat, a few head of cattle, &c, &c. ; while Mr. Mars- 
den's mind became more and more intent upon the in- 
troduction of the Gospel and of civilization into JSTew 
Zealand. 

Not long after this, Mr. Marsden had occasion to 
visit England, and took the opportunity of bringing 
the subject before the Committee of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society. "We can well imagine with what 
ardour and energy he pleaded the cause of the Maoris ; 
and with what success, we shall see in the following 
chapter. 



CHAPTEE V. 



CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY — RUATARA — PLANS FOR 
A SETTLEMENT. 

" How shall they hear without a preacher ? " — Rom. x. 14. 

It is very profitable, as well as very interesting, to 
look back to the early proceedings of the Churcb Mis- 
sionary Society ; to see the hallowed names of Scott, 
and Simeon, of Cecil, and Venn, and Buchanan, and 
Pratt, and Bicker steth, and their fellow- workers of a 
former generation, and to read of how they thought 
and felt and acted ; how — few in number but strong in 
faith — they laid the foundation, broad and deep, of 
that structure which God has so blessed and honoured. 
It brings a kind of sacred stillness to the mind thus to 
commune, as it were, with holy men now at rest in the 
presence of that Saviour whom they so loved and 
served on earth ; and the bright calm light with which 
their memories are encircled, serves to guide and cheer 
those who have taken up the same labours from which 
" they have ceased." 

Thoughts and feelings such as these have often 
visited our minds while tracing out the commencement 
of the New Zealand Mission ; and we can only hope 
and pray and believe that the same Holy Spirit that 
has guided from the beginning the efforts of the Society, 
will ever continue to rest upon it, — " the spirit of wis- 
dom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, 
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." 



40 



CHUECH MISSIONARI SOCIETY. 



Mr. Mars den's earnest appeal to the Society met 
with an equally earnest attention and interest ; and 
after much and prayerful deliberation a plan was 
adopted, which would, it was hoped, lead to the evan- 
gelization of the island. 

It was determined that the Mission should be com- 
menced by sending out a few artisans, men of piety 
and industry, as settlers, to teach the natives some of 
the simpler arts of life, and while thus winning their 
confidence and their affection, to take every opportunity 
of scattering the seeds of Divine Truth, and thus to 
prepare the way for Missionary work of a more exclu- 
sive character 

And here we must observe that Missionary Societies 
had not then had the experience we now possess ; and 
had not yet so fully learnt, that however valuable civili- 
zation is as a handmaid to evangelization, it is in itself 
but of little value as a forerunner, and that the simple 
preaching of " Christ Jesus and Him crucified " is " the 
power of God unto salvation," to the barbarous Scy- 
thian as to the polished Greek. 

We do not however mean that the settlers were in- 
structed to confine themselves to the mere secular im- 
provement of the New Zealanders : on the contrary, 
as soon as they could master the language, they were 
expected to devote as much time as they could spare, 
to the religious instruction of any natives to whom they 
could gain access. 

It was not long before the Society met with two 
persons who seemed exactly suited to their purpose. 
Mr. "William Hal], recommended by the late Mr. 
Pawcett of Carlisle, was a carpenter, who had also learnt 
something of navigation and ship-building ; and Mr. 



RUATARA. 



John King, well known to the present Bishop of Cal- 
cutta, was a shoemaker, acquainted also with flax- 
dressing and rope-making, and knowing something of 
agriculture. 

Such were the two men who laid the foundation of 
the great work now accomplished. Knowing nothing 
of New Zealand but its misery and its wickedness, its 
massacres and its cannibalism, they left their native 
land and all the blessings of civilization, to dwell among 
a nation of untried savages, well aware that their own 
lives and those of their families would be in constant 
jeopardy. Love to G-od and to the souls of men could 
alone have moved them to this heroic self-devotion ; and 
the prayers and hopes, not unmixed with anxious fears, 
of many Christian hearts accompanied them, when, in 
company with Mr. Marsden, they embarked on board 
the " Ann," on August 25, 1809. 

It was a happy omen, and proved eventually a most 
important advantage, that a day or two after they had 
joined the ship, Mr. Marsden observed a poor emaci- 
ated man, evidently very ill, sitting on the forecastle ; 
and, upon going up to him, recognised him as a New 
Zealand chief whom he had some time before seen at 
Port Jackson. Poor Huatara * had suffered much 
from English sailors, and there seemed very little hope 
of his living to reach his own land again ; but the kind- 
ness of Mr. Marsden, and the captain and officers of the 
ship, the medical attendance of the doctor, and the 
careful nursing of Mr. King, soon in great degree re- 
stored his health, and swept away from his remembrance 
the many injuries he had received. Puatara was nephew 
to Tippahee, and a chief of considerable importance in 
* Formerly written, " Duaterra." 



42 



BUATAEA. 



the northern part of the Island ; in person he was tall 
and well made ; his dark eye was full of animation, and 
his bearing noble and dignified. His manner, like that 
of his uncle, was mild, engaging, and courteous ; and 
his mind acute, intelligent, and generous. He was 
now about twenty-one or twenty-two years of age ; and 
it appeared that some four years before, his love of 
enterprise had led him to engage himself as a common 
sailor in one of the whalers that touched at the Bay 
of Islands for provisions. After serving in her for 
a twelvemonth, he was, contrary to agreement, put 
ashore at Port Jackson, without either money or friends ; 
and must have starved, had not a Captain Richardson 
engaged him on another whaling expedition, and at the 
end of six months landed him on his own shore, well 
paid in European articles. 

These events had not subdued the spirit of inquiry 
in the young chief's mind ; and at the end of a few 
months he again trusted himself to the master of an- 
other whaler, who promised, when he had completed 
his cargo, to take him to England and show him King 
George, which at this time seemed to be the summit 
of his ambition. The ship first visited Bounty Island, 
where Euatara and a few other men were sent on 
shore to collect seal skins, while the " Santa Anna ' ' 
went to Norfolk Island to procure provisions and water. 
A very small stock of food and a very scanty supply of 
water was given them, but the master promised to re- 
turn in a few days. Ten ]ong months however passed 
away before the ship again appeared : three of the men 
had perished from want, and the remainder must have 
shared their fate, had not another vessel happened to 
touch at the Island, whose master humanely spared 



R1TATARA. 



43 



them a small supply. During the ten months, they 
had collected 8000 seal skins, and when all were again 
on board, the " Santa Anna " set sail for England, and 
Euatara looked forward to the accomplishment of his 
long- cherished desire. On the voyage he was treated 
most cruelly ; he was frequently beaten very severely, 
and the illness of which we have spoken was the effect 
of some of the heavy blows he then received. But he 
bore all, for he hoped soon to see King George ; and 
we can imagine something of his disappointment and 
mortification, when, on arriving in London, the master 
only ridiculed him for his credulity, and dismissed him 
without any remuneration for his services. Ah! had 
Euatara's intense desire been directed to another object, 
had it been " the King of Grlory " whom he so ardently 
longed to see, he would not have thus been disappoint- 
ed. Ill and destitute as the poor chief was, there 
seemed nothing before him but death in a strange land ; 
and it is one of those many proofs we have of an over- 
ruling Providence in all the affairs of life, that he should 
have been, without any human contrivance, brought 
into the very ship in which Mr. Marsden and his com- 
panions were to sail. During the voyage Mr. Marsden 
had much conversation with him, and found him as 
anxious as Tippahee had been for the improvement of 
his countrymen. He was delighted to find that Mr. 
Hall and Mr. King were intending to settle in New 
Zealand, and promised them protection and every assist- 
ance in his power, if only they would establish them- 
selves on his property in the Bay of Islands. As Tippa- 
hee' s district was in the same neighbourhood, Mr. 
Marsden had no hesitation in deciding according to 



AEEIVAL AT PORT JACKSON. 



his wishes ; and promised to begin the settlement as 
soon as possible. 

It is a remarkable circumstance, that thrown as 
Euatara had almost exclusively been among lawless and 
ungodly men, the idea of a Christian Sabbath had taken 
a firm hold of his mind ; he spoke of it repeatedly, 
and implied that his people even now desired some- 
thing of the kind, but that they had not hitherto 
known "how to make a Sunday." ]N"ow, he said, he 
should be able to teach them ; and, in order to do this, 
he employed his mind in inventing Maori names for 
the different days of the week. 

Eull of hope and anticipations, the party landed at 
Port Jackson, in February, 1810 ; but a sad disappoint- 
ment awaited them. News had lately arrived that a 
trading vessel, named the Boyd, had been attacked by 
the natives in "Whangaroa Bay, on the north-east 
coast, that the crew had been murdered and eaten, 
and the ship burnt. Tippahee too was dead ; some 
whalers, hearing of the loss of the Boyd, determined to 
avenge it ; and, confounding the innocent with the 
guilty,* came clown upon Tippahee in his island home 
in the Bay of Islands, burnt his village, destroyed his 
crops, and put him and his people to the sword. 

Euatara was exceedingly distressed at the loss of his 
uncle, and at the delay in the projected plans ; for the 
whole of that part of the Island was in such a state of 
excitement and disturbance, that he could no longer 

* Tippahee, it afterwards appeared, happened to be in Whangaroa 
Bay at the time of the massacre ; but, so far from joining in it, had 
done all in his power, though unsuccessfully, to rescue some of the 
crew. 



KIT AT AT* A. 



45 



guarantee the safety of an European. The chief him- 
self however determined to return and ascertain the 
real state of affairs, promising to come back as soon 
as possible. It was several months before an oppor- 
tunity offered for his sailing: the intermediate time 
was passed in acquiring knowledge of various kinds ; 
and when at last he left Port Jackson lie was sup- 
plied by Mr. Marsden with whatever was likely to be 
useful to him. 

But months passed on,' and nothing was heard of 
Euatara, till Mr. Marsden grew uneasy, and feared 
that some accident had befallen his young friend. 
More than a twelvemonth had elapsed, and Mr. Mars- 
den's anxieties still increased, when, to his great joy, 
Euatara again made his appearance, but looking worn 
and haggard, and with a sorrowful tale to tell, not of 
the barbarities of his countrymen, but again of the bad 
faith and cruelty of Englishmen. He related his 
adventures with great feeling, told Mr. Marsden of the 
joy with which, after six months of whale fishing, he 
found himself in sight of his own land ; how the ship 
anchored in the Bay opposite his own village ; of the 
delight with which he recognized each familiar object 
far and near ; of his collecting his little property on 
deck ; his impatience to see the boat lowered that was 
to take him on shore to be again united to his wife 
and children. And then he spoke of the dismay with 
which he found the anchor heaved, and the vessel stand- 
ing out again to sea, and of the unfeeling captain's dis- 
regard of his tears and remonstrances. He spoke too 
of the anguish with which he again saw the beloved 
coast receding from his view, and of his despair of ever 
again beholding it. After much ill usage the captain 



46 



HUATAKA. 



left him on Norfolk Island, where, friendless and des- 
titute, and without resource, he was found by another 
vessel, whose master kindly supplied him with food and 
clothing, and brought him once more to Port J ackson. 
Again under the friendly roof of his constant friend,* 
he soon recovered health and spirits, embarked once 
more for his native land, and at length reached it in 
safety about the beginning of 1813. 

His long absence, extending, with one short inter- 
val, over a period of seven years, had not been alto- 
gether lost to him ; it had partly loosened the hold that 
his early superstitions and native customs held upon 
his mind, and prepared him the more readily to avail 
himself of opportunities of improvement. On both oc- 
casions, during the months spent under ]\Ir. Marsden' s 
roof, that servant of God carefully instructed him in 
the leading truths of our most holy faith ; but his pro- 
gress was very slow, and his ideas remained sadly con- 
fused. The observance of the Sabbath was the only 
point on which he seemed clear ; and we find that after 
his return to New Zealand, he continued to " make a 
Sunday" himself for the first "five moons," after 
which he probably lost his reckoning of the days.f He 

* It was not only Tippahee and Ruatara that experienced the hos- 
pitality and kindness of Mr. Marsden. He built a hut near his own 
house at Paramatta, in which any New Zealanders were welcome to 
take up their abode, and where they received every kindness. Some 
of them remained there for days, and even weeks ; and in this way 
Mr. Marsden became acquainted with several of the chiefs, through 
whom his name became known and loved by many who had never 
seen his face. Probably these chiefs lived at some distance from 
Ruatara's district ; or it would be difficult to account for the incre- 
dulity with which, as we shall presently see, his statements were 
received. 

f Ruatara tried to persuade some of the other chiefs to do the 



EUATAEA. 



made far greater progress in agriculture than in reli- 
gious knowledge ; Mr. Marsden wisely accustomed 
him to manual labour ; he engaged in it with ardour, 
and by the time he left Paramatta, he was well ac- 
quainted with the culture of wheat, and all common 
vegetables. 

AYe can fancy him returning to his own land early 
in 1813, rejoicing in his newly-acquired knowledge ; 
supplied by Mr. Marsden with everything required to 
make it available — tools and seeds and plants ; filled 
with the most sanguine hopes of raising his beloved 
country from her present degradation; and never 
doubting but that his brother chiefs would thankfully 
avail themselves of what it had cost him so much pains 
to learn. Already, as his ardent mind stretched on- 
ward, the whole scene was changed ; he saw the arts of 
peace substituted for devastating wars, and, as he would 
often say, wheat would be everywhere cultivated, and 
Xew Zealand would be a great nation. 

Poor Euatara had yet to learn that ignorance is the 
parent of incredulity, and he soon found that the pre- 
judices and habits of his countrymen were too deeply 
seated to be so easily eradicated. "When he told them of 
his adventures, and of all he had seen and heard at 
Port Jackson, they listened at first with the greatest 

same, but without success ; they answered him that they knew Eng- 
lishmen had no Sabbath, for of all the many vessels that had been 
to New Zealand only two had made any difference in the day ! 
Those however who had been to Port Jackson could not hare said 
this ; for there the Sabbath was at this time strictly observed ; no 
packets were allowed to go in or out of the harbour, the prisoners 
as well as the soldiers were regularly mustered and taken to church, 
and quiet and order prevailed all around. 



48 



II U AT ABA. 



interest ; but soon his tales surpassed their powers of 
belief. Nothing would persuade them that the bread 
and biscuit they had occasionally procured from the 
ships, could be made from the wheat he showed them ; 
and when, in attempting to describe the horses, he 
spoke of them as " corraddees," * large enough to cany 
a man, they could listen no longer, but stopping their 
ears reproached him with supposing they were so fool- 
ish as to believe his traveller's tales. A few, more 
liberal than the rest, proceeded to test the truth of his 
assertions by attempting to ride their pigs ; but the re- 
sult only served to convince them the more fully of 
Euatara's want of truthfulness, and all he said was re- 
ceived with ridicule and contempt. 

Had Tippahee been alive he would have confirmed 
Euatara's statements, and gone hand in hand with him 
in all his plans ; but he was gone, and Euatara was 
left alone in his noble endeavours. 

Disconcerted, but not daunted, he with some difficulty 
prevailed on six of the chiefs to accept some of the seed 
which he had brought with him, and to sow it according 
to his instructions and example. It came up well, grew 
luxuriantly, and Euatara was eagerly looking forward 
to the removal of at least one of their prejudices, when, 
just as it was coming into ear, he had the mortification 
to find it was all destroyed ! Not supposing there could 
be any mode of increase different from that of their 
kumera, they had examined the roots, and not finding 

* Corraddee is the native name for dog, and as they had never 
seen any quadruped except dogs and pigs, (see page 6,) Ruatara 
knew not in what other way to give them an idea of either horses 
or cows. 



KUATAEA. 



49 



any grains of wheat growing there, had pulled up all the 
plants and burnt them! Only one among them, Hongi* 
the uncle of our chief, had had the forbearance to wait 
to see what the plants would really come to, and he and 
his nephew were rewarded by a plentiful crop. 

But notwithstanding the incredulity and ridicule 
with which the chiefs had heard Euatara's histories, 
they received him with warmth and kindness, and were 
so pleased with the prospect of friendly Europeans 
coming to settle among them, that he took the first 
opportunity of sending an urgent request to Mr. Mars- 
den to commence a settlement without delay. This 
message, welcome as it was to Mr. Mars den, found him 
in considerable difficulty. From the time that he had 
first mentioned his project he had had much to endure, 
and much to contend against. We have already f 
spoken of the strong feeling entertained throughout 
the colony against these barbarians, whose extermin- 
ation seemed far more desirable than their conver- 
sion ; and there were, besides, parties whose personal 
interest it was to prevent, if possible, the proposed 
settlement, lest the system of fraud and cruelty they 
had so long pursued, should be brought to light. These 
people attempted to misrepresent the motives, and even 
to blacken the character of GtOd's own servant ; and 
though they could not succeed in fixing any stigma 
upon him, yet they so far gained their point, that not 
even one of the more respectable portion of society 

* Formerly written Shunghee, or E, Ongi ; he was chief of the 
Ngapuis, a fierce tribe occupying a large tract of country inland, 
stretching from near the western shore of the Bay of Islands to the 
other side of the Island. 

f Page 35. 

E 



50 ME, HALL AND MB. KENDALL' S YISIT. 

would join him, and he was left to pursue his glorious 
work alone. Nothing however could turn him from 
his purpose ; through evil report, as afterwards through 
good report, he stood firm as a rock, strong in the Lord 
and in the power of his might. 

But before the final step was taken, Mr. Marsden 
thought it prudent to send Mr. Hall and Mr. Kendall 
(an additional settler just arrived from England) to 
ascertain for themselves the temper of the people, and 
the practicability of establishing themselves among 
them. 

They reached the Island in the middle of the year 
1814, to the great delight of Huatara. He showed 
them the potatoes, carrots, onions, &c. &c, growing in 
profusion from the seed he had brought from Port Jack- 
son. He had, too, a large number of pigs, and his whole 
farm was in a most flourishing condition. To the 
chief's great joy, they had brought a steel mill with 
them; and he immediately set about grinding some of 
his wheat, to the no small surprise of his incredulous 
neighbours, who could scarcely believe their own eyes 
when they saw the flour ; and when Ruatara proceeded 
to make some cakes and bake them in a frying-pan, and 
then gave each of them a piece to taste, they danced 
and shouted with the most extravagant joy. They even 
began to think it possible that his other tales might be 
true, even that of the large corraddees.* 

Mr. Kendall and Mr. Hall were, on their part, not a 
little startled and discouraged at first, at the wild and 
savage appearance and manner of the people ; but the 
kind reception they met with from all the chiefs soon 
dispelled any personal fear; and after spending six 
* Page 48. 



DIFFICULTIES. 



51 



weeks among them, during which time they received the 
most urgent entreaties to return soon and settle there, 
they felt no hesitation as to their future course. Bua- 
tara, Hongi, and Koro-koro, (another chief of the 
Bay of Islands,) accompanied them back to Port Jack- 
son, where their report filled Mr. Marsden's anxious, 
waiting heart with joy and gratitude. 

Mr. Marsden had not Jiesitated to fix on the Bay of 
Islands for the site of the new settlement, as being the 
only spot on which he could hope for protection for the 
settlers. Besides the friendship of Buatara, which he 
knew he could depend upon, he was slightly acquainted 
with some of the other chiefs in the northern part of 
the Island, who had been at Port Jackson, and to whom 
he had had opportunities of showing kindness ; and he 
hoped this would be remembered by them. But there 
were disadvantages attending this locality — it was 
almost the only resort of the trading vessels ; and these 
had not only increased the demoralization of the na- 
tives, but had formed a kind of small port on the 
southern shore of the Bay (Kororarika), which was 
often the haunt of deserters and run-away convicts from 
New Holland and Yan Diemen's Land, who were, in 
some respects as much to be feared as the New Zea- 
landers themselves. 

Another cause of anxiety was a deadly feud which 
had, he found, sprung up, since the affair* of the Boyd, 
and the consequent murder of Tippahee, between the 
chiefs of the Bay of Islands and those of Whangaroa, 
which would expose the settlers to great danger should 
actual hostilities again arise between them. But as he 
intended to accompany the expedition himself, he trust- 
ed to be able to mediate between the hostile tribes, or 

E 2 



62 



DEPARTURE FOR SEW ZEALAND. 



at all events to prevail on those of Whangaroa to refrain 
from injuring the Europeans. He hoped also in some 
way or other to overcome the other difficulty, and lost 
no time in making the necessary preparations for 
starting. 

The party that Mr. Marsden took with him consist- 
ed of the three settlers with their wives and children, 
a flax- dresser, a smith, the three returning chiefs, and a 
gentleman of the name of Nicholas, who had volunteered 
to accompany them. Taking with him a stock of every- 
thing likely to be useful or convenient, Mr. Marsden 
embarked with his companions on November 28th, 
1814, in the little brig Active, (which he had at his 
own risk purchased for £2000,) on this blessed mission 
to the Maori nation, — "Those noble people," as he wrote 
to the Church Missionary Society, "who are only 
waiting for what you so richly enjoy — the means of 
grace, the heavenly manna, to fall around their hun- 
gry tents. I fear," he continues, "the Society will be 
alarmed at the expense, but consider for a moment 
what a state of bondage, sin, and misery all must be in 
who are literally without hope, and without Grod in 
the world. I know I am not authorized by the Society 
to do all I am doing in pecuniary matters for this mis- 
sion. If they approve of any part I shall be thankful ; 
and if they fully enter into my views, I shall the more 
rejoice. But should they see it . in a different point of 
view, and not feel disposed to give all the pecuniary 
assistance it seems to need, I shall not be discouraged 
from doing all I can, till I see I can do no more. The 
Lord will provide the required money either here, or in 
England, and I hope and believe the Great Head of 
the Church will give his support and blessing.' ' 



CHAPTEE VI. 



MR. MARSDEN'S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND* 

" Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy," — St, Luke ii. 10. 

The summer sun was setting'; and his departing 
rajs shed a flood of light on the dark bold rock that 
forms New Zealand's northern promontory, when, on 
December the 15th, 1814, the Missionary vessel first 
came in sight of land. Mr. Marsden stood on deck, 
eager to catch the first view of the country for whose 
welfare he had prayed, and laboured, and waited for so 
many years. His delighted eye rested with admira- 
tion on the scene before him ; and as he watched the 
sun-beams gliding from point to point, his heart glowed 
with the hope that ere long a brighter and a never- 
setting sun would rise, and chase away the moral dark- 
ness that enveloped all around him. 

As the Active neared the cape, several chiefs came 
off in their canoes ; they were very friendly, and seemed 
somewhat interested when Euatara explained to them 
the intentions of Mr. Marsden, but the party did not 
come into actual intercourse with any body of natives 
till the 18th, when finding themselves becalmed near 
the small islands of the Cavalles, off the north-eastern 
coast, they determined to go on shore. 

The New Zealander in a foreign land, dressed in 
European clothes, and conforming himself with a re- 
markable facility to the manners and conversation of 
the persons among whom he is thrown, is a very dif- 



54 



A TAlSfGI. 



ferent being from the Maori chief, clad in his native 
mat, proudly treading his own native soil, and conscious 
that he may bid defiance to all intruders ; and nothing 
that Mr. Marsden had seen or heard at Port Jackson 
had at all prepared him for the savage wildness of this 
people when free from the restraint of Europeans. 
The party were however courteously received, and had 
any evil intention been entertained, the presence of 
the chiefs they had brought with them would have pre- 
vented the execution of it. 

The meeting of one of these chiefs, Koro-koro, with 
a relative who resided on the island, gave rise to so 
extraordinary a scene, that we will not pass it over in 
silence. This was a"tangi," or ceremony performed 
on the meeting or parting of friends or relations ; it 
still partially retains its hold upon the people, but was 
then universal, and attended with such curious circum- 
stances that we shall give the account of it in Mr. 
Marsden' s own words. " After we had landed," he 
writes, " and while we were talking to Koro-koro and 
some of the natives, his aunt came to welcome him, 
accompanied with some other women and children. 
She had a green bough twisted round her head, and 
another in her hand. "When she came within a hun- 
dred yards, she began to make a very mournful lament- 
ation, hauging down her head as if oppressed with the 
heaviest grief, and advancing towards Koro-koro with 
a slow and measured step. He, on his part, appeared 
much agitated, and stood in deep silence, leaning on 
the top of his musket. As the aunt advanced, she 
prayed very loud and wept exceedingly. Koro-koro 
remained motionless till she came up to him, when 
they laid their heads together, the woman leaning on 



WBAKGABOA BAY. 



55 



a staff and he on his gun. Thus they stood, repeating 
short sentences aloud, which, we understood, were 
prayers, and here they wept aloud for a long time, the 
tears rolling down their cheeks in torrents — it was 
impossible to see them without being deeply moved. „ 
A daughter of the aunt also sat at her feet weeping ; 
and the women who accompanied her joined in the 
lamentation, cutting themselves in their faces, arms, 
and breasts, with sharp shells or flints, till the blood 
streamed down. We thought this an extraordinary 
mode of manifesting their joy, but afterwards found it 
was universal." Our readers will join with Mr. Mars- 
den and ourselves in wondering at these tokens of 
Maori joy ! 

While lying becalmed off the Cavalle Islands they 
heard that some of the Whangaroan chiefs were en- 
camped with a large party of their followers, on the 
opposite coast. We have before mentioned these people, 
and the blood-feud that since the massacre of the Boyd 
had existed between them and the tribes of the Eay of 
Islands : we have mentioned also Mr. Marsden's anx- 
iety to establish matters on an amicable footing for 
the safety of the intended settlement, well knowing 
that the forty miles of wood and swamp that would 
separate it from these savages, would of themselves 
prove a very ineffectual protection. 

The present opportunity seemed a favourable one for 
endeavouring to accomplish this; and unmoved by 
Buatara's entreaties, who knew the unscrupulous fero- 
city of the tribe, and trembled for the safety of his 
benefactor, he determined to visit them. Finding him 
fixed in this resolution, Euatara not only engaged to 



56 



WHAN GAR OA BAT. 



accompany him, but in his own generous way, and re- 
gardless of his own personal danger, volunteered to 
make the first advance. The party consisted of Mr. 
Marsden, Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Kendall, Mr. King, Mr. 
Hanson, the master of the ship, Hongi, Koro-koro, 
and Euatara ; and they had no sooner landed than 
they saw the body of armed men stationed on an op- 
posite hill. Euatara went forward, and after explain- 
ing to them that some white men desired to visit them, 
rejoined his own party. There was a pause, and our 
friends doubted what reception they were to expect, 
when they saw a woman advance from the "Whan gar o an 
band, flourishing a red mat round her head, and crying 
out, "Haromai, haromai," "Come hither, come hither." 
This they were told was a welcome, and proceeding on- 
ward, they soon found themselves in the midst of the 
Whangaroans. The chiefs were sitting on the ground 
surrounded by their warriors, who were standing with 
their spears, fifteen or twenty feet in length, fixed up- 
right by their side. Both chiefs and men were dressed 
in their native mats, some of them very handsome, and 
all had their hair neatly tied in a knot at the top of the 
head, and ornamented with long white feathers of the 
gannet. Some wore round their necks ornaments of 
green jade, some the teeth of their slaughtered ene- 
mies, while some, as if proud of the atrocious destruc- 
tion of the Boyd, were adorned with dollars taken from 
that ill-fated ship. But who can realize the description 
of the sights and sounds that followed ! The warriors 
seized their spears and brandished them, as if in fury, 
one against the other ; yells, shrieks, and roars rose on 
every side ; while the frightful gesticulations and va- 



WHAXGAROA BAY. 



57 



riety of horrible distortions of face and limb were enough 
to strike terror and dismay into the most resolute. It 
was a war-dance of welcome ! 

Mr. Marsden had much conversation with the chiefs, 
of whom the principal one, who had assumed the name 
of George, had taken the lead in the affair of the Boyd. 
They did not deny the barbarous deed, but justified it 
as only retaliation for wrongs inflicted on their chief 
by the master of the vessel. 

Evening was drawing on apace, but the most im- 
portant subjects had not yet been discussed ; and Mr. 
Marsden, fearing he might not again have so favourable 
an opportunity, determined on the bold step of staying 
there during the night. Mr. Nicholas volunteered to 
remain with him ; Hongi did the same, but it was 
thought better that the rest of the party should return 
to the ship ; and thus, alone, unarmed and unprotected 
save by the shield of faith in Him for whose Name's 
sake they were there, these two Englishmen prepared 
to pass the night in the midst of well-armed and fero- 
cious cannibals. Must not He in whom they believed, 
have endued them with special strength for the oc- 
casion ? 

" George," writes Mr. Marsden, " directed me to lie 
by his side ; his wife and child lay on his right hand, 
and Mr. Nicholas close by. The night was clear, the 
stars shone bright, the sea before us was smooth ; 
around were the warriors' spears stuck upright in the 
ground, and groups of natives lying in all directions 
like a flock of sheep upon the grass, for there were 
neither tents aor huts to cover them. I viewed our 
present situation with feelings I cannot describe ; sur- 
rounded by cannibals who had massacred and devoured 



53 



WHAK&ABOA EAT. 



our countrymen, I wondered much at the mysteries of 
Providence, and how these things could be. I did not 
sleep much ; my mind was occupied by the strange cir- 
cumstances in which we were, and the new and strange 
ideas the scene naturally awakened." 

Among the starry groups that on that night visited 
Mr. Marsden's wakeful eyes, the Southern Cross shone 
out with its own soft lustre ; and is it likely that he 
beheld it with unmoved feelings ? Would he not greet 
it as a fitting emblem of the purpose that had brought 
him hither ? And then, as before the morning dawned 
the diadem of the South # rose from its ocean bed. and, 
climbing the steep of heaven, added its bright circlet 
to the " spangled" firmament, must it not have cheered 
his heart with hopes of future triumphs and unfading 
glory, even for these dark savages that lay around him ? 

Whether the sight of these constellations really sug- 
gested such thoughts to him we cannot tell ; the thoughts 
themselves were there ; and we know that that evening 
and that night were fraught with important conse- 
quences to the mission ; for the chiefs, wrought upon 
by Mr. Marsden's arguments, and moved, no doubt, by 
the fearless intrepidity of his conduct, not only pro- 
mised to forbear from molesting the settlement, but 
agreed to come to terms of peace with the chiefs of the 
Bay of Islands. In the morning several of them went 
with Mr. Marsden on board the Active, where, after a 
good English breakfast, with which they were much 
delighted, they entered into a peaceable compact with 
Buatara and Koro-koro as representatives of the rest . 

The wind was now favourable, and the Missionary 
band soon found themselves at the entrance of the Bay 

* Corona Australis. / 



RANGT-HOUA. 



59 



of Islands. Standing out towards Cape Brett, they 
passed the conical rock, that, rising midway between 
the headlands, seems to guard the approach ; and as 
they proceeded were struck with admiration at the 
beauty of the scene. In the foreground, the bright 
sea was studded with islands ; some barren and rocky, 
others clothed with trees and verdure. Far beyond, the 
dark grey promontories stood boldly forward, divided 
from each other by the rivers that are everywhere to 
be found ; while the distant horizon was bounded by 
mountains of various forms. One sorrowful sight how- 
ever arrested their attention — it was the island once 
the favourite resort of the murdered Tippahee, # where, 
in advance of his neighbour chiefs, he had taught his 
people something of European cultivation. JSTow all 
was desolate — the burnt ruins of the huts, and the un- 
cultivated plantations, still told the cruel tale. Only 
one house was standing, it was the one that Governor 
King had had built for the chief himself. 

The Active anchored in a little cove on the northern 
side of the Bay, over against Bangi-houa, the chief 
village belonging to Ruatara, and was speedily sur- 
rounded by canoes, full of men and women anxious to 
welcome back their respective chiefs, and, as on the 
Cavalle Islands, testifying their joy, the men by weep- 
ing, the women by cutting themselves in all directions. 

The next day the party landed, and fixed on a spot- 
adjoining the village, for the residence of the settlers. 
Mr. Marsden's name was already well known here, and 
the people crowded round him with every mark of 
affectionate regard.f "We may imagine their astonish- 
* See Page 44. 

f It was the same when, during his stay on the island, he made 



60 



A NEW ZEALAND WELCOME. 



ment when the cattle were brought on shore, and they 
found the truth of Buatara's description of " large cor- 
raddees but the sight of Mr. Marsden on horseback 
quite bewildered them ; they seemed to think him more 
than mortal, and believed that by some supernatural 
power he had united himself to the horse. 

Koro-koro had quitted the vessel as soon as she ar- 
rived, and now returned to give Mr. Marsden and the 
new settlers a welcome according to native etiquette, 
an etiquette however which it required no little nerve 
to witness without alarm. Ten of the formidable war- 
canoes we have before described were seen in regular 
line, and with colours flying, bearing swiftly down upon 
the Active. Every rower in the long line dipped his 
paddle at the same moment, so that the whole seemed 
like one stroke. The chiefs were standing up in their 
canoes, with their war-mats gracefully thrown over 
their shoulders, then hair neatly tied and adorned with 
white feathers, and in their hands were their tall 
spears, also ornamented with feathers. Their bodies 
were painted with red ochre, and their fierce tattooed 
countenances were rendered more fierce by the frightful 
contortions of their features. They sung the war-song 
as they approached, and their wild impetuous gestures, 
like those at Whangaroa, seemed to bid defiance to 
any other power, "Hone," says Mr. Nicholas, " but 
those who saw it can form a conception of the terrible 
appearance." They made as though they intended to 

excursions to the more inland villages. His name passed from 
mouth to mouth, and the very children shouted it out with delight. 
So truly did this poor people appreciate the kindness shown to their 
countrymen at Paramatta. Songs and dances were even composed 
to his honour. 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 



61 



attack the sbip ; and a shudder must have run through 
some of the party on board, as they recalled the dread- 
ful realities that had in former times taken place in that 
same Bay. Eut in a moment all was changed, the war- 
song became a note of joyful welcome, and the counten- 
ances of the men resumed their usual expression. The 
chiefs came on board, each bringing some little present, 
while Koro-koro, with the greatest natural courtesy, 
introduced them to the several persons on board, men- 
tioning, as he did so, the various kindnesses and atten- 
tions he had received from each. 

Sunday, December the 25th, now arrived. Mr. Mars- 
den had mentioned to Euatara his intention of per- 
forming Divine service on shore, and the chief had 
spared no pains in making all the preparations in his 
power. The first sight that greeted Mr. Marsden's 
eye when he went on deck that morning, was an Eng- 
lish flag flying at Eangi-houa, in honour of the day.* 
The party went on shore, and were surprised to find 
with what ingenuity Euatara had contrived his arrange- 
ments. He had enclosed about half an acre of ground 
with a fence, and in the centre had erected a pulpit 
and desk, and covered them with black native mats, to 
conceal the roughness of the materials, and had arranged 
the bottom of some old canoes as seats for the Euro- 
peans ; himself and his companions not requiring any 
but the ground. Mr. Marsden's own account is as 
follows. " "When we landed, we found Koro-koro, 
Euatara, and Hongi, dressed in regimentals, given them 
by Governor Macquarrie, with their men drawn up, 

* This flag was a present from the governor of Port Jackson, 
from whom the chief had begged either a flag, or a bell, or a drum, 
to collect his people together on the sabbath day. 



G2 



CHRISTMAS DAT. 



ready to march into the enclosure to attend Divine ser- 
vice. We entered, and were placed on the seats on 
each side of the pulpit. Koro-koro inarched his men 
in, and placed them on my right hand behind the Eu- 
ropeans ; Euatara placed his on the left. The inhabit- 
ants of the town, with the women and children, and a 
number of other chiefs, formed a circle round the whole. 
A very solemn silence prevailed. I rose and began the 
service by singing the Old Hundredth Psalm, and I 
felt my very soul melt within me when I viewed my 
congregation, and considered the state they were in. 
After reading the service, I preached from St. Luke 
ii. 10, 6 Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.' 
The natives told Euatara that they could not under- 
stand what I meant. He told them not to mind now, 
for that they would understand it by-and-by, and that 
he would explain my meaning as far as he could. When 
the service was over we returned on board, much gra- 
tified ; and with the strongest persuasion that the 
time was at hand when the glory of the Lord would be 
revealed to these poor benighted heathen, and that the 
labours of those who remained on the island would be 
crowned and blessed with success." 

Euatara was delighted with the success of this first 
attempt to introduce the worship of the true Grod, and 
Mr. Marsden rejoiced with a holier, deeper joy : there 
was something singularly encouraging in its having 
occurred on Christmas Day, and that almost the first 
words from Grod's own book that fell on the ears of 
those barbarians should have been, " The people that 
walked in darkness have seen a great light ; they that 
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them 
hath the light shined." Would not " the zeal of the 



BUILDING. 



63 



Lord of hosts perform " yet greater things ? Would 
He not manifest himself to the souls of these people 
as "Wonderful," "Counsellor," "the Mighty God?" 
and would not "the Prince of Peace" now establish 
His government where the darkest, fiercest passions 
had hitherto reigned ? 

It was well that, as the hearts of Mr. Mars den and 
his companions swelled high with all these glorious 
hopes, the intervening days of darkness, trial, and suf- 
fering were hidden from their sight. Had they fore- 
seen them, how could they have had courage to face 
them ! But we will not anticipate. 

Every effort was now made to get raupo * buildings 
erected that might serve as temporary dwellings for 
the settlers, and storehouses for the various European 
articles they had brought with them both for use and 
for barter ; timber was procured from the opposite side 
of the Ba}^ ; the smith and carpenter set hard to work, 
every hand on board assisted, and the village of Eang- 
houa presented the novel scene of European industry. 

As soon as the rude habitation was built and the 
settlers and stores safely landed, Mr. Marsden spent a 
week in visiting the eastern coast as far as the river 
Thames, 150 miles from Bangi-houa ; and it is another 
instance of the fearless confidence he placed in these 
people, that with only five Europeans to navigate the 
ship, he ventured to take on board twenty-eight JNew 
Zealanders, all well armed to secure the party from any 
attacks from stranger natives. He afterwards made 
several excursions inland, rowing as far as he could up 
one or other of the four rivers that fell into the Bay, 
and continuing his journey on foot. In this way he 
♦ Page 29. 



04 



BTTATARA. 



became acquainted with a large proportion of the chiefs 
of the surrounding country, was everywhere received 
with kindness and hospitality, and found every one 
pleased with the prospect of the settlement of Euro- 
peans on the island. 

More than once on these excursions, Euatara found 
occasion to testify his thoughtful anxiety for the com- 
fort of his benefactor. Mr. Marsden happened to have 
been absent longer than he intended, and Euatara, 
fearing he would feel the want of his usual English 
comforts, went to meet him with a supply of bread, 
tea and sugar, and any other little thing that occurred 
to him. Indeed, the whole conduct of this remarkable 
young man was such as to encourage the best hopes 
with regard to him. His anxiety for the welfare of 
his people filled his mind, and was the constant theme 
of his conversation. " I have introduced wheat," he 
often again would say, " into New Zealand, and it will 
become a great nation." He made arrangements for 
extensive cultivation among his people, and planned the 
building of a town on an English model. It was a 
beautiful spot that he fixed on, commanding a view of 
the Bay and the adjacent country; and as he took Mr. 
Marsden over it and pointed out the spot on which he 
intended to build a church, it was arranged that a few 
days after, they should again meet and mark out the 
streets. 

Alas ! before that day arrived Euatara was stretched 
on his dying-bed. His seizure was sudden, and Mr. 
Marsden hastened to his dwelling, to minister to his 
bodily and spiritual necessities, but was denied ad- 
mittance. His superstitious friends feared the venge- 
ance of the Atua if a white man should approach. For 



DEATH 01 It "TATAR A. 65 



three days did Mr. Marsden endeavour to remove their 
prejudices, but in vain ; till finding his poor friend was 
getting worse and worse, he threatened that the Active 
should fire on the village if they did not yield. This 
had the desired effect, and Mr. Nicholas and himself 
were permitted to visit him. It was a very painful 
scene. His favourite wife sat beside him bathed in 
tears, her dishevelled hair lying on her shoulders, and 
her face expressing the anguish she was enduring. He 
was himself so weak that he^ could scarcely speak ; but 
his intellects were clear as ever, and his languid eye 
lighted up with joy at the sight of Mr. Marsden, as 
though it were a gleam of comfort to illumine his dark 
passage. They had brought with them medicine and 
English food, but he was tapued, and was not allowed 
to take them. He did not expect to recover ; " and," 
writes Mr. Marsden, " at this awful moment he appear- 
ed not to know what to do. He wished me to pray 
with him, which I did, but the superstitions of his 
country had evidently a strong hold upon his mind. 
His views of the gospel were not sufficiently clear to 
remove his superstitions, and yet he loved to hear what 
I could tell him of the love of Christ. As my stay was 
limited by the governor's orders, I was obliged to leave 
him in the midst of his affliction, and four days after my 
departure he died." # 

"We learn from other sources, that the day before he 
died he was removed from his own house, according to 
the superstitious custom of the country, to a shed erect- 

* It is a touching circumstance, that in the midst of his sufferings 
he did not forget some presents he had prepared for Mr. Marsden 
and Mr. Nicholas ; he sent for and gave them the handsome mats he 
had set apart for this purpose. 

F 



6G 



DEATH OP BTTATARA.. 



ed near. Either "by accident or by his .own wish, which 
we are not told, it was on the very spot where not 
many days before, full of glad anticipation, he had stood 
and consulted with Mr. Marsden, as to his intended 
town, that Buatara breathed his last. Whether as the 
bright, long- cherished prospects of future usefulness to 
his countrymen faded from his dying eyes, the love of 
a crucified Saviour was more clearly manifested to h.s 
soul, we do not know — no European was again allowed 
to see him. The,veil is too closely drawn for us to see 
beyond it, and while contemplating the early death of 
this promising chief, we can only lay our hand upon 
our mouth, and say, " Shall not the Judge of all the 
earth do right ?" 

To complete the sad tale, the poor wife put an end 
to her existence the following day; she could not endure 
this life without him whom she so fondly loved, for 
she knew not the God of all consolation. 



CHAPTER VII. 



TRIALS AND PATIENCE OF FIRST SETTLERS BEGINNING OF PRO- 
GRESS—MR. MARSDEN's SECOND AND THIRD VISITS — HONGI 
IN ENGLAND — HIS CONDUCT ON HIS RETURN. 

M I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress ; my 
God ; in Him will I trust." — Psalm xci. 2. 

The Active sailed again for Sydney on February 
25th, 1815 ; the settlers accompanied her to the en- 
trance of the Bay ; and, after "bidding adieu to Mr. 
Mars den, and watching the white sails of his little 
vessel disappear behind the northern headland, they 
returned to Eangi-houa. And now the reality of their 
present situation forced itself more strongly on their 
minds. They had quitted country and friends, and all 
the interchanges of civilized life ; and henceforth, de- 
fenceless and alone, a land of cannibals was to become 
their earthly home. Months must elapse before they 
could again have intercourse with Port J ackson ; before 
they could again look on one friendly face, or receive 
one 

" Cordial endearing report 
Of a land they must visit no more," 

What might not have happened ere those months had 
passed ! 

At present the feeling of the barbarous people round 
them was decidedly in their favour, but who could tell 
how soon some trifling act of indiscretion, or some un- 

F 2 



68 



SITUATION OP THE SETTLERS. 



intended insult,^ or some unfounded rumour, might 
kindle a flame to be quenched only by their blood ! 

The death of Buatara had materially affected their 
position : they had lost the shelter and the help of his 
strong hand and earnest heart ; and though Hongi, 
whose still more powerful sway extended across the 
Island, had promised Mr. Marsden to protect them, his 
mind was cast in a very different mould from that of 
his lamented nephew. The one absorbing desire of 
Buatara had been the improvement and elevation of 
his countrymen, and his cordial help was ever ready 
for those who would promote this object ; while the 
master passion in the breast of Hongi was self-ag- 
grandizement ; and his interest in the new settlement 
arose chiefly from his conviction that it would give 
him influence over his neighbour chiefs. 

But the settlers yielded not to any gloomy regrets 
or forebodings ; they were looking for that " city that 
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;" 
their Lord was with them, His work was before them ; 
and trusting in Him as their "refuge and fortress," in 
His name they girded up the loins of their mind, and 
applied themselves with spirit to the duties that lay 
before them. The party at this time consisted of 
Messrs. Kendall, Hall, and King, with their wives 
and children, Mrs. King's mother, two sawyers, one 
smith, and three or four labourers from Sydney. Th.3 
first thing to be done was to provide more substantial 

* e. g. The head of a chief was considered so peculiarly sacred, 
that no part of it must ever be spoken of; the bare mention of his 
eye, or his ear, Avas a serious offence, and often punished by imme- 
diate death. 



FIKST TKIALS. 



69 



dwellings ; for the wind and rain penetrated their pre- 
sent abode of flags and rushes, and the floor was some- 
times ancle- deep in mud. Then the land they had 
purchased had to be fenced and cleared and planted ; 
and the smith w r as kept constantly at work in making 
nails and fish-hooks for use or for barter. 

The natives would continually collect round them, 
looking on and wondering, and hindering the work by 
the attention they required. Some of them would 
agree to help them ; but a few hours generally sufficed 
to tire out these undisciplined labourers, and they 
would start off to fishing, or to some employment more 
congenial to their desultory habits. The settlers' 
wives took a few of the more promising girls into their 
houses, and at first they w^ere delighted at being taught 
the arts of household work ; but they too would often 
run aw r ay for hours, and though their mistresses clothed 
and fed and taught them, they were often left without 
the help of even one.* 

The attempt to instruct the boys in the rudiments 
of reading was not much more successful ; they were 
clever and intelligent, and for a little while they would 
seem deeply interested ; but presently w r ould jump up 
to dance or play ; and sometimes the teacher had to 
follow his scholars into the bush, and there prevail on 
them to sit still for a quarter of an hour, while they 
learnt some English word, or a letter of the English 
alphabet. 

But one of the trials of the settlers at this time 
arose from a different cause — neither men nor women, 
boys nor girls, seemed to have the slightest sense of 

* See next chapter for an animated description of this from the 
pen of Mrs. H. Williams. 



70 



TEIALS. 



propriety or decency; and their persons and habits 
were so dirty and disgusting, and the language they 
had learnt from the sailors was so revolting, that to be 
thus brought into daily and hourly contact with them 
required an amount of self-denial scarcely to be appre- 
ciated in our own civilized community. 

More serious annoyances were however yet to come. 
As the novelty and prestige of a European settlement 
gradually wore away, the natives began to show more 
of their real character. The stores of flour, biscuit, 
rice, wearing apparel, blankets, axes, &c, intended for 
the settlers' own use, or for the purchase of timber 
and provisions, were all objects of covetous desire to 
these poor people ; they would come and imperatively 
demand anything they had a fancy for, and when re- 
fused, however courteously, the more daring of them 
would leap over the fence, break into the store, and 
help themselves ; and it was to the settlers a continual 
matter of surprise and thankfulness that the whole of 
the property was not swept away. 

Sometimes a spirit of wanton mischief seemed to 
come simultaneously over the whole neighbourhood ; 
the people would send their pigs into the settlers' 
wheat, or would break the fences and let the cattle run 
into the bush, or seize upon the poultry and kill or 
carry it off before the owners' eyes. A wheelbarrow 
was one day cut to pieces for the sake of the nails, 
though they might have had them from the smith for 
asking for them ; and at another time a shed was pulled 
down for the same purpose. 

These attacks were often accompanied with insults 
and threats of the most frightful kind ; and " to be 
told that before morning their house would be in flames, 



TEIALS. 



71 



or that the stones were then heating for the oven in 
which they were to be cooked, was on more than one 
occasion the evening farewell from a mob of angry 
natives." # 

Xever was that promise, " Thou shaft not be afraid 
of any terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by 
day," more entirely fulfilled than to this devoted band; 
for it is a remarkable circumstance, that though in 1835, 
twerjty years later, Mr. King told Captain Pitzroy that 
he could not then look back on those days without 
shuddering,* yet all the letters written at the time 
uniformly breathe a feeling of secinity from any per- 
sonal danger. 

' Against all these injuries and insults, the settlers' 
only weapons were remonstrances and arguments, 
Hongi indeed was at this time faithful to his promise, 
and ready to listen to any appeal ; but his residence 
was at Waimate, many miles from Eangi-houa, and as 
the aggressions were more frequently committed by 
other tribes than by his own, the fear of bringing on a 
quarrel prevented then applying to him except in cases 
of great emergency. 

After a time, want of sufficient food was added to 
the settlers' other trials. The abundance of pigs and 
potatoes on the island had led Mr. Marsden to conclude, 
that, as long as they had a store of European articles 
with which to purchase these provisions, there could be 
no difficulty in procuring them. His great care there- 
fore had been to supply the settlement with blankets, 
axes, <fcc, and the smith with a stock of iron for nails 
and fish-hooks ready for barter. But now the trade hi 
muskets and ammunition, of which we have before 
* See Captain Fitzroy's Narrative. 



72 



DEFICIENCY OF PROVISIONS. 



spoken,* began and rapidly increased ; and the desire 
of procuring weapons that would give them such de- 
cided advantage over other tribes, so stimulated the 
warlike propensities of the chiefs and people round the 
Bay, that they would not part with their provisions 
for anything but these. It was in vain that the settlers, 
while refusing to deal with them on these terms, set 
before them the miseries of war, and urged them to 
turn to peaceful cultivation ; the people were mad 
upon their idols, and our friends had the mortification 
of seeing food they had hitherto so easily purchased 
now carried past with shouts of derision and triumph. 

Their own resources were very small: the cattle had 
been so often set free, that by degrees they had all 
escaped irreclaimably into the forests ; the wheat and 
poultry that were saved from the depredations of their 
neighbours were wholly insufficient for their support ; 
and the supplies from Port J ackson were necessarily 
very irregular and uncertain. 

Those who are much acquainted with Missionary 
history know well how painfully the most zealous Mis- 
sionaries often speak of the evil effect produced on 
their own minds by an unceasing contact with heathen- 
ism, how it tends insensibly to lower the tone of their 
own spirit, and how apt they are to find a kind of 
apathy steal over them. Those who know this, and 
who know likewise the plague of their own hearts, will 
not wonder to be told that in this emergency, in an 
evil hour, the settlers yielded to the temptation, and 
began themselves occasionally to trade in muskets. It 
was but for a little while, and bitterly did they repent 
their error; not only on its own account, but as it 

* Tage 17. 



FEB SEVERANCE OP THE SETTLEES. 



73 



hindered the Mission, and subsequently brought them- 
selves into greater difficulties and perplexities. What 
need have we to take heed to the injunction, "Let 
thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look 
straight before thee." " Turn not to the right hand 
nor to the left ; remove thy foot from evil."* 

Yet, encompassed as they were with dangers and 
difficulties, and we may add with infirmities, these 
devoted tnenf never lost sight of the ultimate object of 
their mission ; and longed and laboured hard to bring 
the perishing souls around them to a knowledge of the 
true and living God. The language however was a 
formidable obstacle ; none of them were men of literary 
acquirements, nor was there any educated native like 
Mr. Samuel Crowther in the Yoruba Mission, to whom 
the sweet accents of his mother tongue soon again 
became familiar, enabling him to assist his fellow- 
labourers in their attainment of the language. The 
settlers indeed soon picked up enough Maori to com- 
mnnicate with the people on matters of ordinary life ; 
but without dictionary, grammar, or even a written 
alphabet of sounds, it was long before they could mas- 
ter it sufficiently to express ideas. The New Zealanders 
too knew something of English, and though it was 
chiefly of the lowest and commonest kind, it was at 
first only through this medium that the Mission- 
aries, as they were now becoming, were able at all to 
make themselves understood on religious subjects. In 
this however they laboured anxiously and earnestly as 

* Prov. iv. 25, 27. 

f We must be understood as speaking of Mr. Hall and Mr. King ; 
Mr. Kendall proved himself unworthy of the work, and was subse- 
quently dismissed, though at this time he was associated with them. 



74 



IMPROVEMENT. 



far as their daily secular work left them time and 
opportunity, and a gradual improvement began in 
the settlement, almost unperceived by the Mission- 
aries themselves. The chiefs frequently visited them, 
and suffered them sometimes to speak to them on 
the concerns of their souls ; and some of them, espe- 
cially Koro-koro, so far understood their teaching, 
that they would help them, when explaining these 
things to strangers. The school had been established ; 
and though it was often suspended from want of food,* 
yet the boys evidently made progress, and the native 
labourers they hired were becoming more regular and 
steady in their work, and more inclined for religious 
instruction. 

Now and then a transient gleam of encouragement 
would cheer even the Missionaries' downcast hearts. 
In June, 1817, Mr. Hall writes, "The natives at 
Hangi-houa are certainly much improved; some of them 
are quite sociable, live among us, and sometimes work 
with us. We are now clearing ground for wheat ; I 
take a hoe, and literally break up the fallow ground ; 
could I do so spiritually in their hearts I should in- 
deed rejoice. The labourers do however come in to 
family prayer and exposition, they are attentive and 
well-behaved, and seem in some degree to understand 
what they hear." f 

But these seasons of encouragement seldom lasted 

* Both boys and girls always required food to induce them to 
attend school, and when the resources of the settlement failed, the 
school was often suspended for weeks together. 

t Mr. Kendall had written a prayer and a short elementary 
catechism in Maori, which proved very useful to the other Mission- 
aries. 



MISSIONARY WORK. 



75 



long ; wars and quarrels among the tribes, the arrival 
of a whaler in the bay, or some event of one kind 
or other, frequently occurred to distract the minds of 
the people, to awaken all their evil passions, to bring 
darkness and danger on the Missionaries, and for a 
time apparently to undo the little good that was go- 
ing on. 

The settlers did not confine their labour to Bangi- 
houa ; but as their acquaintance with the language 
increased, they went out on Sabbath days into the 
neighbouring villages ; and, though with stammering 
lips, tried to tell them of the Creation, the Fall, and of 
the wonders of Redemption. 

Sometimes they made more distant excursions, either 
visiting the coast to the South in some native canoe, or 
penetiTtting on foot many miles into the interior ; 
generally accompanied by a friendly chief, and every- 
where received with kindness and hospitality. It is 
true that sometimes there was nothing to be procured 
for food but fern-root, and fish that was not eatable ; 
and their only lodging was a stifling native hut, or in 
line weather, the far preferable shelter of a neighbouring 
tree ; but none of these things moved them, nor hinder- 
ed them from journeys that enabled them to declare the 
Gospel to more distant villages. 

Looking back as we now do on these early days of 
the New Zealand Mission, we can but marvel at the 
history. AYe wish we could impart to our readers the 
impression made upon our own minds by the perusal 
of the letters and journals of the Missionaries. But 
it was the continual recurrence of the trials that made 
them so heavy to be borne ; and of this, of course, no 
abridged account can give a just representation. And 



76 



MR. MARSDEN's SECOND YISIT. 



yet so patiently, so cheerfully, did these servants of 
Christ bear the Cross for His name's sake, that it is 
only when in later years we find how thankfully they 
rejoiced in their comparative relief, that we can form 
any adequate idea of what they really suffered. G-on 
specially upheld them, or they must have sunk under 
their accumulated burdens. 

Pour years and a half thus passed away : no per- 
manent addition had been made to their number ; for 
though fresh labourers had more than once been sent, 
they had proved unsuited for the work, and had been 
recalled. JN"or had they had the comfort of personal 
intercourse with Mr. Marsden: that good nmn's heart 
had not grown cold, but his duties in the Colony had 
obliged him to remain there. We may therefore ima- 
gine the joy with which Mr. Hall and Mr. King saw the 
Active again, on the 13th of August, 1819, enter the 
Bay of Islands, and found that Mr. Marsden was on 
board, with some additional labourers. 

Mr. Marsden' s visit was very opportune, and gave 
great encouragement to the settlers. Disheartening as 
was the slowness of progress when measured by months 
or even by years, yet the present aspect of things, com- 
pared with what it was in 1815, filled the heart of this 
friend of the Maoris with gratitude and hope. An 
evident improvement had taken place in the tone and 
bearing of the chiefs; several of them had become 
anxiously desirous of peace, and now only took up arms 
in self-defence. A much larger quantity of land had 
been brought into cultivation ; European grain and 
vegetables were becoming common among the people ; 
and though as yet these were only valued as articles of 
barter with the shipping, yet the mere raising them 



KEEI-KERT. 



77 



tended to promote habits of industry and steady ap- 
plication. The school children, notwithstanding all 
disadvantages, had made some progress in reading and 
writing ; and were in better discipline than he expect- 
ed. He grieved indeed to find that, as far as human 
eyes could see, the word of Grod had as yet fallen on 
" way-side' 5 hearers, and that there was not one indi- 
vidual on whose heart any impression had been made, 
yet he continued to take a cheerful view of the pros- 
pect of the Mission ; for he remembered that the hea- 
then were given to the Son for His inheritance ; and 
the very fact of the Missionaries having been enabled 
to keep their ground, seemed to him a good omen for 
the future. 

■ He found many of the chiefs in the Bay of Islands, 
and along the coast to the River Thames, very anxious 
for Missionary settlements in their respective districts,* 
but as only one additional one could now be formed, 
he considered that Hongi had the first claim, and made 
arrangements for the establishment of a new station 
twelve miles from Waimate, the chiefs own residence, 
and nine miles from Rangi-houa. It was a beautiful 
spot, on the banks of the Xeri-'keri, five miles from its 
mouth, and not far below a waterfall to which the na- 
tives had given the name of " AYaiani-waniwa," or 
" Rainbow- water." 

In the course of 1820, Mr. Marsden again visited 
the Island at the request of the government, who were 
beginning to turn their attention to it, and he rejoiced 

* Of course this was only from temporal motives, yet it gave an 
opening for the gospel, and who could say what spiritual results 
might follow ? 



78 



MR. MARSDEN S THIRD VISIT. 



in the opportunity thus afforded him of exploring the 
country to the distance of two or three hundred miles 
from the settlement. 

To those who love to trace the progress of a good 
man through dangers, privations, and difficulties in the 
cause of G-od and man, we would recommend the peru- 
sal of Mr. Marsden's Journals, in the 21st and 22nd 
Reports of the Church Missionary Society, and in the 
Missionary Eegister for 1822. They will read with 
what dauntless courage he made his way, at one time 
with a European companion, at another with merely 
a native chief* to guide him, through unknown forests 
and wilds, trackless save to the eye of the experienced 
natives, to whom the turning of a leaf is sometimes the 
only indication that the way has ever before been trodden 
by mortal foot. They will read of the many villages he 
visited in this land of savages, of the children's shrieks 
of terror whenever they caught the white man's eye, 
and of the respect and friendliness with which the older 
people welcomed him. To what appalling tales of can- 
nibalism was he not forced to listen, daring these long 
■journeys, f and how did his inmost soul rejoice in being 
permitted to proclaim to them in return a Saviour's 
love ! 

The establishment of this second station at Keri-keri 
was in some respects attended with different circum- 
stances from that of Rangi-houa. Hongi's people, the 
Ngapui tribe, partaking of the character of their chief, 

* The name of this chief was Temorangha. 

f During one of these expeditions, Mr. Marsdeu mentions that 
he did not visit a single family of which one or more of its members 
had not been devoured, and doubtless they had all done the same 
to others. 



79 



were far more proud, ferocious, and turbulent than 
those of the gentle Ruatara ; and though Keri-keri 
was not more than nine or ten miles from Bangi-houa, 
the influence of the settlers had not reached it. Hongi 
himself, though anxious for the settlement from inter- 
ested motives, took little pains to promote it ; and it 
was with difficulty that the Missionaries could procure 
timber for their buildings, unless they purchased it 
with muskets and powder. And the continual petty 
warfare in which Hongi was engaged with some one or 
other of the neighbouring tribes, the passing and re- 
passing of hostile parties intent on mischief, kept them 
in continual alarm. 

But the unexpected departure of Hongi in March, 

1820, for England, freed them from some of these evils, 
and they set about the improvement and cultivation 
of the settlement with all possible activity. Early in 

1821, one of them writes, " I bless God that at this 
time we are living in the midst of this people without 
any fear or apprehension as to our safety ; the inhabit- 
ants immediately round us are much softened since we 
have been among them, and we possess their confidence 
and esteem." 

The farming establishment at Keri-keri prospered 
much better than at Rangi-houa ; the soil was superior, 
and the Missionaries had acquired experience/ Accord- 
ingly we read of ten natives constantly employed in 
farming, gardening, looking after pigs, goats, cows, &c, 
" often acres of land sown with wheat, barley, oats, and 
pease," of the "garden being well stocked with veget- 
ables, fruit trees, and flowers." Among the vegetables, 
asparagus is particularly mentioned ; and peaches, 
apricots, oranges, and lemons were only a few of the 



80 



HONGl's YISIT TO ENGLAND. 



fruits they were enjoying in not more than two years 
after they had introduced them into the country, so 
fertile was the soil and so favourable the climate. 

A few children, too, were found willing to be taught. 
The same plan was adopted as at Eangi-houa, of taking 
young women into the house, and of collecting the 
work-people for instruction ; the Missionaries were 
getting on with the language, and " all things looked 
bright." 

"We must now leave New Zealand for a little while, 
and follow Hongi on his way to England. He was ac- 
companied by Mr. Kendall and a neighbouring chief.* 
The reasons he assigned for undertaking the voyage were, 
his wish " to see the king and his people, and to know 
what they were doing ;" and he expressed great anxiety 
to take back with him a number of artisans and some 
more Missionaries. The friends of Missions and of 
civilization received him warmly ; it seemed an opening 
for the future well-being of New Zealand that they 
dared not neglect ; and no pains were spared to gratify 
his curiosity, or inform his mind. He was even ad- 
mitted to an interview with his Majesty George IV., 
who received him and his companion with the utmost 
courtesy, and made them some valuable presents. Hon- 
gi' s dignified and courteous bearing excited the greatest 
interest in the minds of those who mourned over the 
darkness of his soul, and he received presents of every- 
thing that was likely to promote the civilization of his 
country. Little did his kind and generous friends sus- 
pect the feeling that lay deep -within his heart, or de- 
tect in his bland and quiet manner the ambition that 
was the true motive that had brought him to these 
* Waikato, a chief of the Bay of Islands. 



HONGI. 



81 



shores, lie aspired to the entire sovereignty of his 
Island; he knew by experience the advantage of Eu- 
ropean fire-arms over the native weapons still in use 
among the distant tribes ; and, too impatient to wait 
for the slow supply obtained from trading vessels, he 
had determined to come himself to what he supposed 
must be a land of muskets, and obtain as many as he 
could wish. His shrewd mind soon discovered the 
mistake he had made, but carefully concealing his cha- 
grin and disappointment, he accepted with apparent 
gratitude the gifts that were so freely bestowed upon 
him, disposed of some of them, even while in England, 
for his favourite weapon, and exchanging the rest* at 
Port Jacksx>n, returned to his native land, not only 
amply supplied with instruments of destruction against 
his countrymen, but with his mind embittered against 
the Church Missionary Society, finding as he did that 
its members desired the salvation of souls instead of 
his own exaltation. How strong is the contrast be- 
tween this visit of Hongi to England, and that of 
his nephew Huatara, as to the object, the circumstances, 
and the results t of each ! 

Hongi arrived again in New Zealand in July, 1821 ; 
his whole tone and conduct towards the settlers was 

* One of the few articles which he did not thus exchange was a 
suit of armour given him by the king, George IV., of which he was 
very proud. 

f One advantage however accrued from this visit of Hongi and 
Waikato to England, as it enabled Professor Lee to become ac- 
quainted with the Maori language, and to prepare a Grammar and 
Vocabulary. Several other chiefs had previously visited this coun- 
try, but as, except in the case of Mowhee, who died in England, no 
lasting effects resulted from these visits, we have omitted any allu- 
sion to them. 

G 



82 



RETURN OF HONG I. 



now altered, and his former professions of friendliness 
were changed into contempt and arrogance. He con- 
trasted their rude dwellings and their simple habits 
with the fine buildings and the splendour he had seen 
in England ; and, in his ignorance of true worth and 
moral dignity, concluded they were beneath the notice 
of one who had been received with kindness by persons 
of high station in this country, and who had been ad- 
mitted to the presence of Royalty itself. 

His people caught his spirit, and the face of things 
at Keri-keri was wholly changed ; the workmen in the 
employ of the Missionaries left them; "the natives," 
writes one of them, " one and all, treat us with con- 
tempt; they are almost past bearing, coming into our 
houses when they please, demanding food, and stealing 
whatever they can lay their hands upon, breaking our 
garden fences, and seeming, in short, ripe for any mis- 
chief. I had my fears that they would have seized on 
the whole of our property; but the Lord, who is a pre- 
sent help in trouble, has heard our prayers." The de- 
predations we have spoken of at !Rangi-houa were 
repeated at Keri-keri more than once ; their own dwell- 
ing-houses were broken into (an act of violence here- 
tofore unknown) ; plates, dishes, &c, were broken ; and 
the food the plunderers could not eat was destroyed. 
Had it not been for Hewa, a powerful neighbouring 
chief, who had always behaved kindly to the Mission- 
aries, they could hardly have escaped personal violence. 
As soon as he heard of the attack, he of his own ac- 
cord came to their assistance, drove away the assailants, 
and for some days kept guard near the house. " Help 
us, O Lord," continues Mr. ~F. Hall, "to put our trust 
in Thee by faith, to stand still and see Thy salvation. 



SCENES OF WAK. 



S3 



Oh ! restrain the violence of these heathen, enable us 
to Lear patiently the spoiling of our goods, and make 
all things, however painful, work together for good." 

The departure of Hongi with his fighting men, early 
in September, on an expedition to the Eiver Thames, 
left the party at Keri-keri more quiet, but with fewer 
opportunities of usefulness. Almost all the chiefs for 
a long distance round had been obliged reluctantly to 
accompany him, and the country was nearly deserted ; 
many of the children even were taken away, for, as 
Hongi said, he wished theni to learn to fight, and not to 
read. 

In December they returned from their too success- 
ful enterprise. The tribes they attacked could not 
cope with European weapons ; hundreds were killed 
and eaten on the field of battle ; the villages were 
burnt, and two thousand captives, chiefly women and 
children, were brought back in triumph to the Bay of 
Islands, some to share the fate of their slaughtered 
companions, the rest to endure the miseries of per- 
petual slavery. It had been a war of extermination. 

But oh ! what scenes of horror were the Mission- 
aries now called upon to witness, scenes never before 
brought before the eye of Europeans. Heads borne 
along as trophies, women and even children falling on 
some of the unhappy prisoners, and murdering them 
with yells of triumph. And then the horrid feast, ac- 
companied with atrocities too dreadful to be believed,* 

* Hitherto scenes of this kind had been carefully concealed from 
the knowledge of the settlers; they were not indeed ignorant of 
their occurrence, but knew not when or where they took place, nor 
w r ith what barbarous circumstances. Even the murder of single 
slaves had usually been done in secret. 

g 2 



Si 



SCENES OF WAB. 



except on the testimony of eye-witnesses, and far too 
dreadful to be recorded in these pages.* 

The Missionaries who witnessed them were so affect- 
ed, that it was some time before they recovered their 
usual tone of health and spirits ; and their wives and 
children dared not stir from their houses, lest some 
similar appalling scene should meet their eye. 

" And is there care in heaven ? And is there love 
In heavenly beings to such creatures base, 

That may compassion of their evils move ? 

There is ; — else much more wretched were the case 
Of men than brutes.— But oh ! the exceeding grace 

Of highest God, that loves his creatures so, 
And all his works with mercy doth embrace ! " 



* A very affecting incident occurred connected with this expe- 
dition. "When Mr. Butler, in 1820, accompanied Mr. Marsden in hia 
visits along the coast towards the South, they had been frequently 
importuned to seud European settlers among them, and hopes were 
held out that by and bye this might be the case. — " By and bye ! " 
cried the poor people, " but when ? we fear all our eyes will be 
dark before they come, and we shall never see them." And now 
two of the captive women visited Mr. Butler, and mournfully re- 
minded him of the conversation. " Ah," said they, "we told you at 
the time we should all be dead before any Missionaries came." It 
was too true, for the whole district was by this war depopulated 
and most of the inhabitants were in eternity ! < 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



PROGRESS OF THE MISSION — MR. MARSDEN's FOURTH VISIT — AR- 
RIVAL OF REV. H. WILLIAMS TRIALS — LAUNCH OF HERALD — 

REV. W. WILLIAMS. 

" The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
ground."' — Gen. iv. 10. 

There is not much variety of incident in the next 
two or three years of New Zealand's history. The 
petty chiefs round the Bay of Islands continued to 
quarrel and fight among themselves, or with their im- 
mediate neighbours, while the restless spirit of Hongi 
led him to more distant and more murderous conflicts. 
Had the mind of this aspiring chief been less barbar- 
ous, had his powers of reasoning equalled his strength 
of will, his ambition might have promoted the welfare 
of his country ; and New Zealand, freed from intestine 
divisions, and united under one head, might have taken 
her own place among the nations. But the aim of 
Hongi seems to have been the acquisition of territory, 
rather than the increase of subjects ; and the ruined 
plantations, the burnt villages, and the depopulated 
districts that everywhere marked his victorious career, 
told too plainly that his residence on British soil had 
not inspired him with British feelings. The horrors 
of war increased with the increase in the supply of 
fire-arms ; much larger numbers were slain on the fields 
of battle than while merys and pattoos were the only 



PATIEXCE OF SETXLEKS. 



weapons employed ; and the captives, that could for- 
merly be counted by tens, were now reckoned by hun 
dreds and by thousands. The population was rapidly 
diminishing,^ and the whole Island seemed likely at no 
very distant time again to become a desert. 

How loud was the cry that now went up from the 
blood-stained soil of the beautiful Ahina-maui ! a cry 
of brother's blood ! The Missionaries heard, and shud- 
dered at it ; but they heard also another voice, sound- 
ing full and deep in their inmost soul, a voice that 
" spoke better things than the blood of Abel," and that 
nerved them to endure all things, if by any means they 
might be the blessed instruments of saving some from 
eternal death. 

One of them writes, " These scenes of cruelty are 
more than we could bear, were it not for the promises 
of Grod. To support us when cast down, He has said, 
6 Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul.' Still we need great faith to enable 
us to stand our ground." 

Another, after enumerating some of the atrocities 
alluded to in the last chapter, adds, " These are scenes 
which have never before taken place under the eyes of 
Europeans since the Mission was established. — The 
late events have made the people dreadfully familiar 
with human blood. They pay no respect to our feel- 
ings, but seem rather bent on disgusting us. There is 
a mystery in their conduct that I cannot unravel : it is 
sufficient for me that my gracious Lord knows what is 
in every heart, and He doeth all things well. To Him 

* Few of the captives survived long ; those who escaped death 
from the anger or caprice of their masters gradually sunk under thQ 
pressure of want, disease, and a "broken heart. 



COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE. 



87 



be glory and praise. If I am killed and eaten by these 
ferocious men, I know that my Saviour will find my 
poor body at the last day." 

The confident language of a third is-: " T do hope 
and pray, notwithstanding every difficulty, that the 
Lord will enable us to keep our ground among this 
people, and finally, of His mercy and goodness, bless 
the cause we have in hand ; and in His own good time 
make these habitations of cruelty the quiet and peace- 
able abodes of peace and love." 

And our sanguine friend at Paramatta, full of earn- 
est hope and faith in the promises of God, writes to 
the Home Committee, " These things do not make me 
despair ; God will yet deliver the New Zealanders from 
the dominions of the prince of this world, and they 
shall see His salvation. You have some of the excel- 
lent of the earth in New Zealand, whom the Lord will 
assuredly bless ; but we must not sow, and expect to 
reap in the same day." 

What a remarkable picture did the Bay of Islands 
now present to the thoughtful mind ! or perhaps we 
might say, what an epitome of the state of the world at 
large, as seen by the eye of faith ! The heathen fight- 
ing and devouring one another — the so-called Chris- 
tians on board the trading vessels, or residing at 
Kororarika, urging them on, for the gratification of 
their own evil passions, to destruction of body and 
soul; — while a little band of God's faithful servants, 
brought from the utmost ends of the earth, were de- 
voting every physical and mental energy to their tem- 
poral and eternal welfare. 

God's servants had much to bear. On the banks of 
the Keri-keri was the accustomed place of rendezvous 



88 



PERSEVERANCE. 



for Hongi and his adherents before starting on an ex- 
pedition ; and on these occasions the settlement was, 
for weeks together, snrronnded with parties of turbu- 
lent and violent men, and its inhabitants were subjected 
to threats, insults, and plunder. Here the warriors 
assembled again on their return, and the " melancholy 
din" was sometimes scarcely bearable. ""Wives la- 
menting their lost husbands, prisoners bemoaning their 
cruel and perpetual bondage, mingled with the joy of 
relatives restored, and the shouts of victory;" — and 
though the Missionaries escaped some of the dreadful 
sights they had been compelled to witness in 1821,* 
yet less revolting acts of cannibalism were not unfre- 
quently perpetrated within sight of their dwellings. 

Quietly and perseveringly, however, all continued in 
their important work. Mr. Hall, and Mr. King, at 
Hangi-houa, cheered and strengthened by the accession 
of brethren at Keri-keri, proceeded with fresh spirit, 
and found that their improved acquaintance with the 
language had a marked effect ; the people seemed to 
feel they had some interest in a religion that could be 
conveyed to them in their own tongue. The chief of 
the little village of Kaishiki, visited by Mr. King on 
"Wednesday evenings, showed him great attention, re- 
gularly preparing a meal for him, and gathering to- 
gether as many of his people as he could, and some- 
times even helping on the children in their attempts 
to learn to read. To use the words of Mr. Hall, about 
this time, " Notwithstanding the many evils that have 
arisen to hinder us, much good has been done ; we 
have as yet no converts, but much knowledge has been 
spread abroad, and important benefits conferred. The 
* Page 83. 



PERSEVERANCE. 



89 



foundation has been laid of a work that will nourish 
when the present instruments shall be no more." 

At Keri-keri, during this time, the Bev. J. Butler, 
Mr. I\ Hall, Mr. Kemp, and Mr. Clarke were dili- 
gently engaged in the necessary secular work of the 
settlement, and in the instruction of the children and 
adults in their employ ; and Mr. Shepherd, who had 
made greater progress in the language, turned his at- 
tention to itinerating among the neighbouring Tillages, 
and to the translation of portions of the sacred Scrip- 
tures into Maori; — "convinced," as he says, "that 
one Grospel in their own tongue would be more effectual 
to the good of the people than all the methods that 
had hitherto been adopted." 

Indeed it was an increasing conviction among them 
all, that the plan of gradual approaches by means of civil- 
ization had been tried long enough, and that the citadel 
must be stormed at once with the weapons of Grod's 
own armoury ; in short, that evangelization must take 
precedence of any attempt to improve the social con- 
dition of the people. They strongly felt how much 
they were hindered in this work by their own secular 
employments, but at present there was no help for this ; 
their very existence depended on their manual labour, 
and they could only wait and hope and pray for the 
time when they should be set free from some of this, 
and have a larger amount of leisure and energy to 
spare for the more spiritual work. About this time 
they established regular prayer-meetings among them- 
selves, and they afterwards looked back to this as the 
period from which to date the first visible beginning of 
any marked improvement, and the time when they ob- 



90 



MR. MAHSDEX'S FOURTH VISIT. 



served a silent influence for good, slowly yet evidently 
making its way in the minds of many of the chiefs.* 

Things were in this state when, on August 3rd, 1823, 
Mr. Marsden again entered the Bay, bringing with 
him the important accession of the Rev. Henry Wil- 
liams, with his wife and family, and Mr. Pairburn, a 
mechanic ; and a third station was formed at Paihia. 
on the sonth side of the Bay, the property of Tekoke, 
who had resided for a short time with Mr. Marsden at 
Paramatta, and on whose protection and good- will he 
was persuaded the new comers might depend. 

It was a beautiful spot that was fixed on for the new 
station. About three hundred acres of level ground 
lay sheltered in an amphitheatre of fern-clad and wood- 
ed hills, and in front a hard sandy beach led down to 
the sea. Three small rocky islands, covered with foliage, 
were near the shore, not only adding to the beauty of 
the view, but protecting the land from the wild ocean 
waves, while at some miles distance the entrance of the 
Bay was clearly visible, and they could watch the 
arrival of any English vessel. 

Here, with all speed, ranpo houses were constructed 
for the Missionary dwellings, for stores and work-shop ; 
ground was cleared and fenced in for garden and farm- 
yard ; the live stock they had brought with them was 
safely deposited within the enclosure ; the garden was 

* The Missionaries had also been much assisted and strengthened 
by the residence among them, for some months, of the Rev. S. Leigh 
and Mrs. Leigh, sent out by the "Wesleyan Missionary Society, to 
found a new Mission in the island. They were joined by Mr. White, 
and in June, 1823, proceeded to Whangaroa Bay, and settled them- 
selves among that fierce tribe, on the very spot that witnessed the 
destruction of the Boyd and her crew. 



PAIHIA. 



91 



cropped; native boys and girls were taken into the 
house ; native labourers were employed in various ways ; 
and before Mr. Marsden left the Island the station was 
fairly established. 

No one could have been better suited for the Mission 
at this period of its existence, when the hitherto de- 
sultory and almost unconnected efforts of the settlers 
were beginning to assume a more definite and united 
form, than Mr. Henry "Williams. With a heart given to 
God, and zealous for the salvation of the heathen, he 
combined an indomitable perseverance with a spirit of 
ardent enterprise, that carried him through difficulties 
and obstacles under which most men would have suc- 
cumbed. 

Xor was Mrs. Williams less adapted to her own pecu- 
liar post. To " a heart at leisure from itself, to soothe 
and sympathize" with all around her, Mrs. Williams 
added an activity and elasticity of mind that every day's 
events and every day's employments brought into 
lively exercise. To a well-regulated mind, the smaller 
annoyances and trials of life happening to us only now 
and then, are not worth a thought, surrounded as we 
are with iinnumbered comforts, and among our own 
people ; but the same things occurring daily and hourly 
in an uncivilized and savage land, press heavily on the 
strength and spirits of the best disciplined. 

We have been privileged to read some letters from 
Mrs. Williams' own graphic pen, referring to this 
period ; and the details they give of the trials of the 
first two years of her Missionary life, and of the spirit 
in which she met them, are so full of interest and instruc- 
tion, that we must endeavour to convey some impression 
of them to our readers ; the more so as they give a 



92 



PAIIITA. 



clearer insight into the similar trials which must have 
been the portion of the wives of the earlier settlers, and 
the spirit in which they also had been met. 

The domestic establishment at Paihia consisted of 
two or three native girls, who not only required in- 
struction in the simplest household work, but also in 
the commonest proprieties and decencies of civilized 
life ; and some idea may be formed of the difficulty of 
managing them, from the following extract from one of 
Mrs. "Williams' letters. " A Missionary's wife must for 
the sake of cleanliness wash and dress her children, 
and make the beds herself. She must be housemaid, 
chambermaid, and nurse, and must superintend every 
thing connected with cooking. There is only one of 
my girls, who has been two years at Keri-keri, that I 
can trust to wash up the tea-things, and even she, if not 
watched, would be as likely to do it with the knife- cloth. 
The very best of them will perhaps, just as you are 
wanting her, take herself off to swim, and then will lie 
down to sleep for two or three hours. If they are not 
in the humour to do what you tell them, they will not 
understand you, or will answer ' what care I for that.' 
The moment a boat arrives, away run all the native 
servants, men, boys, and girls, to the beach. If any- 
thing is to be seen, the mistress must do the work 
while the servants go to look ; and she must not cen- 
sure them, for if they are 6 rangatiras' * they will run 
away in a pet, and if they are £ JmJcis' # they will laugh 
at her and tell her she has ' too much of the mouth.' 
Having been forewarned of this, I wait, and work away, 
till they choose to come back, which they generally do 
at meal- time." 

* Rangatiras or gentleman's children — kukis or slaves. 



PAIHIA. 



03 



Four very young children in a very small dwelling, 
that effectually excluded neither wind nor rain, was in 
itself sufficiently inconvenient ; but to this was added 
the want of a fire even in the cold weather ; for the 
walls of rushes were too combustible to allow of one 
in the house ; and the cooking, which Mrs. "Williams 
was obliged to do with her own hands, let the weather 
be what it would, was carried on in an open shed. 

As at Rangi-houa and Keri-keri, the natives were at 
first kept in check by the novelty of having Europeans 
settled among them; but, as in those earlier settle- 
ments, it was not long before this wore off, and their 
insolent bearing and pilfering propensities began to 
manifest themselves. They were very fond of visiting 
the station, and nothing escaped their keen eyes or 
their covetous desires: — they never considered whether 
it would be of any possible use to themselves, but 
watched every opportunity of seizing whatever was 
within their reach, and the ample folds of their large 
mats afforded a generally secure hiding-place. In sr#>rt, 
there was not one of these visitors whom the Mission- 
aries were not obliged to watch unceasingly from the 
time he entered the premises till he left them ; and 
even all this watching was only partially successful. 
Hopes, brooms, tools, knives, blankets, wearing apparel, 
were continually disappearing. An iron pot, the pen- 
dulum of the clock, part of the cooking stove, and even 
books and papers, had violent hands laid upon them ; 
and two volumes of Milner's Church History met with 
a fate little anticipated by their writer, of being con- 
verted into Xew Zealand cartridges ! 

Want of proper nourishment was more than once 
added to the trials and discomforts of the first two 



94 



PAIHIA. 



years of their residence at Paihia. At one time the 
only animal food they could procure was some American 
salt beef, not to be ventured upon except by those 
strong constitutions to whom labour and exercise in 
the open air makes any kind of food acceptable. At 
another, they were for some weeks reduced to a supply 
of flour from the shipping, several years old, and so 
musty and offensive that it was scarcely possible to 
keep it in the house. They might have found a re- 
source in poultry and in vegetables ; but they had 
been plundered of almost all their fowls and turkeys, 
and the first produce of their garden had been de- 
stroyed by the natives ; nor had Mr. Williams or his 
native workmen found time to fill it with a second 
crop. It quite touches one's heart to read with what a 
glow of pleasure Mrs. "Williams speaks of " a basket of 
peas, lettuces, and cabbages, sent to us," she says, 
" from Keri-keri, the very sight of which was quite re- 
freshing, and made us long for leisure to obtain the 
like comforts." And all this time they saw an abund- 
ance of pigs and potatoes all around them, but not to 
be procured, except in exchange for ammunition. 

But before Mrs. Williams left the comforts and con- 
veniences of her English home, she had counted the 
cost ; and though her physical strength sometimes gave 
way, her buoyant spirit bore her up, and shed a sunlight 
glow on all around. " Often," says Mr. Williams, "is 
she tired in her work, but never of it" 

Even her nerves, however, and strength of spirits 
now and then gave way, when some of the neighbouring 
chiefs, under the pretext of an affront from some or 
other of the workmen, but really moved by the love of 
plunder, came with bodies of armed men to demand 



PAIHIA. 



05 



" utu ' ' or payment, or in other words to seize on all 
they conld get. It tried both heart and nerve to hear 
their loud and angry voices, or their heavy blows upon 
the paling, demanding admittance within the enclosure ; 
— to see them, when refused, armed with spears, merys, 
and hatchets, leaping over the fence or forcing their 
way through the entrance ; to listen to their wild 
threats, and to witness their half frantic gesticulations. 
And then to feel, that as far as human aid was concern- 
ed, they were entirely in the power of these savages, 
and that in whatever part of the house Mrs. Williams 
and her children might take refuge, they could not be 
in safety! "What but the power of a strong faith could 
have upheld her in such moments ? 

ITpon these occasions, Mr. "Williams' cool intrepidity, 
as it was his only, so it proved an effectual, weapon 
against these savages ; he met them unarmed even 
with a stick, and after reasoning with them and up- 
braiding them for their cowardice in thus attacking 
those who had no means of defence, desired them to 
leave the premises ; and on their refusal ordered his 
workmen, both European and natives, to turn them 
out, which, after some struggle,* they always succeed- 
ed in doing. After two or three occurrences of this 
kind, Mr. Williams decided on having recourse to more 
determined measures ; and on occasion of the next at- 
tack sent to the leaders of the movement, complaining 
of their conduct, and insisting on the restitution of the 
stolen property ; adding, that if this demand was not 

* Probably the natives did not so mucb intend violence as intimi- 
dation and plunder ; otherwise they would soon have overcome the 
Mission servants, who were entirely unarmed — Mr. Williams not 
suffering any weapons to be on his premises for fear of some collision. 



96 



PAIIIIA. 



complied with within three days, or if any similar ag- 
gression took place, he would no longer remain at 
Paihia, but remove to some other place where he might 
hope to reside unmolested. This had the desired ef- 
fect ; most of the property was brought back, nothing 
of the kind was again attempted by the neighbouring 
tribes, and Tohitapu, who had been one of the most 
violent of the aggressors, became one of the warmest 
and most faithful of their friends. 

But we will now turn to a more peaceful subject. 

During Mr. Marsden's stay in the Island, it had 
been suggested that the possession of a small vessel 
would very much tend to remove some of the diffi- 
culties that were now harassing and perplexing the 
Mission. Its home, it was proposed, should be in the 
Bay of Islands, and it was to be employed in keeping 
up a regular communication with Port Jackson, and in 
visiting the distant coasts of the Island, partly with a 
view of preparing the way for future Missionaries, but 
chiefly to procure supplies of food from places not as 
yet resorted to by trading vessels. This would relieve 
the Missionaries from depending in any way upon the 
neighbouring natives for their provisions, and thus pre- 
vent the exercise of a petty tyranny, which was not 
only extremely irksome to themselves,* but very in- 
jurious to the people. 

But how was such a vessel to be procured ? They 

* Page 72, Mr. Leigh mentions that, while residing at Rangi-houa, 
he and his family lived on salt provisions for four months, during 
which he vainly endeavoured to procure a pig from the natives. 
They as usual refused to part with it except for ammunition, till at 
the end of this time one of them took a fancy to the hat he was wear- 
ing, and he was glad to part with it in exchange for fresh meat. 



THE LAUNCH. 



97 



were not warranted in spending the Society's money 
in the purchase of one ; and ship-building without a 
dock and without shipwrights seemed rather like a 
castle in the air. But Mr. Williams was not daunted ; 
he had himself been a lieutenant in the navy, and knew 
something of the construction of a ship. Mr. W. Hall 
had had a little instruction in the art before he left 
England, and, with his assistance and that of two Euro- 
pean carpenters and some native labourers, he resolved 
to attempt it. He laid the 'keel in July, 1824, and 
after eighteen months' hard labour she was ready for 
sea. She was of 55 tons burden, small enough to run 
up the many creeks and rivers of the Island, and large 
enough to cross the ocean to Port Jackson. The work 
during its progress had excited great interest, so much 
so that the men employed on her were exempted from 
accompanying their chiefs to war ; but the launch, so 
different from their own mode of pushing their canoes 
into the water, filled the people with the greatest as- 
tonishment and delight. As the day dawned on J anu- 
ary 24, 1826, an imposing and animating scene met 
the eye. Natives, in all the variety of their picturesque 
costume, had assembled from every quarter, to the 
number of a thousand ; the sea seemed alive with the 
multitude of canoes and boats from the whalers in the 
Bay, and the little " Herald " herself was gaily decorated 
with flags. All was eager expectation ; and Mr. Wil- 
liams' heart beat with intense anxiety. At seven o'clock 
the signal was given ; the stays were knocked away ; 
and the unconscious subject of anxious days and sleep- 
less nights glided smoothly and beautifully into the 
bosom of the ocean, amid the shouts and loud " Awes " 
of the surrounding crowd. Mr. Williams' heart was 
h 



REV. W. WILLIAMS. 



relieved, and he had only to thank God for thus far 
prospering his work. 

A week later, and Mr. Williams was on board his 
little vessel on her way to Port J ackson ; by a happy 
coincidence, as she stood in for the harbour, the He v. 
W. Williams, who was on his way to join him in New 
Zealand, came in with Mr. Marsden from Paramatta ; 
and we may imagine how joyful was the greeting be- 
tween the brothers. They soon set sail again, and 
reached Paihia on the evening of the 26th of March. 
" The moon shone bright, the sea was calm, and the na- 
tives were rejoicing on all sides," writes Mr. H. Wil- 
liams, " that their long looked for new countrymen 
were come. The evening was cool, and my wife had 
furnished a bright fire, # and supper was prepared. All 
the members of the settlement assembled at our house 
to bid us welcome. We closed the evening with prayer 
and praise, and thus ended one of the happiest days of 
my life. The next day was Easter Sunday ; and per- 
haps the largest congregation of Missionaries and set- 
tlers met together that had ever assembled in New 
Zealand. My brother preached, and it was truly a 

* They were now residing in a small cottage which Mr. Williams 
had found time to erect ahout a year after their arrival. It was 
very rough, being made of a sort of coarse wicker-work, and plastered 
with mud, but it kept out the weather tolerably well, and they were 
able to have the luxury of a fire in the house. In 1827 Mrs. Wil- 
liams mentions the increased comfort and pleasure they were enjoy- 
ing by having now a garden well stocked with vegetables and young 
fruit-trees, and a grass plat enlivened with geraniums, monthly roses, 
&c. But it was not till 1830 that they had anything like a substan- 
tial house ; and Mr. Williams scarcely knew how sufficiently to enjoy, 
for the first time for seven years, the possession of a little room of his 
own, where he could have the retirement he often found he so much 
needed, and where his books and papers were free from molestation. 



BET. tf. WILLIAMS. 



99 



pleasant and, I hope, a profitable day." Mr. W. Wil- 
liams says, " I cannot describe my feelings that even- 
ing ; it was almost dark, but I could distinguish several 
of the poor natives who assisted in our landing; and I 
felt strongly some of the difficulties that surrounded 
us. The next day was Easter Day, and it rejoiced me 
to think that the first time the natural sun rose upon 
me in this land, should be the day on which the Sun of 
righteousness rose again for our justification. " # 

* About this time the original New Zealand Company made their 
first attempt to settle on the Island. In November, 1826, a ship 
full of intended settlers put into the river Thames ; but the people 
were so alarmed at the ferocious appearance and conduct of the na- 
tives, that they were afraid to land. They visited the Bay of 
Islands ; and the Missionaries, who had from the first, even in the 
most turbulent times, gone in and out among the people fearlessly 
and unarmed, were not a little surprised to find that none would 
dare to come ashore, even to the Missionary settlements, without 
loaded pistols. What a testimony to the Gospel of peace ! The set- 
tlers afterwards proceeded to Hokianga on the west coast, but re- 
linquished that also. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



INCREASED DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS. — DESTRUCTION OF WES- 

LEYAN SETTLEMENT. QUIET RESTORED. HONGl'S DEATH. 

MEDIATION BETWEEN HOSTILE TRIBES. 

" When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble ? " 

Job xxxiv. 29. 

As years passed on, there was no improvement in 
the external aspect of "New Zealand. Many of the 
chiefs increasingly desired peace ; bnt fear of each 
other prevented them from openly acknowledging* it, 
and they continued to follow Hongi in his destructive 
expeditions. 

As these expeditions became more frequent, the 
people became more wild and turbulent ; and the ab- 
sence of Hongi from the neighbourhood was a signal 
for plundering parties from a distance to attack the 
settlement of Keri-keri. Again and again were the 
brethren subjected to the outrages we have before 
described; more than once their faces were spit on; Mr. 
Shepherd was several times struck with a spear ; and 
Mr. Clarke only escaped destruction from an uplifted 

* There were, however, a few, more bold than the rest, who had 
the courage to refuse. One of these was Temorenga, the young 
chief who had accompanied Mr. Marsden on his inland journeys, 
(see page 78,) and who even ventured to remonstrate with Hongi 
on the subject. "Waikato too, since his voyage to England, had 
learnt to detest the scenes of cannibalism that attended these expe- 
ditions, and refused to have anything more to do with them. 



ENDEAVOURS EOR PEACE. 



101 



hatchet by the quiet fearlessness of his demeanour. 
He might well write on this occasion, " Our preserva- 
tion among this people is little less of a miracle than 
that of the Three Children in the fiery furnace, for we 
are in the heart of Satan's kingdom." — Mr, B. Davis, 
who had only lately arrived, says, " The Mission is in a 
very dark state ; we are surrounded by enemies. But 
the hand of the Lord is very visible, and though we 
may be obliged to leave the country for a time, or may 
even be devoured by these cannibals, yet the cause of 
Christ is beyond the power of Satan to hinder. Only, 
O Lord, increase our faith." 

At times, however, there were seasons of rest even 
for Keri-keri, and the Missionaries were now and then 
able for months together to pursue their labours with- 
out any serious molestation. At one time indeed a 
hope was entertained that Hongi himself would become 
tired of war, and apply himself to more peaceful pur- 
suits. 

In an expedition he had undertaken in July, 1825, 
against Kaiparo on the western coast, the eldest of 
his sons was slain ; and the deep grief in which some of 
the Missionaries found the unhappy father, when pay- 
ing him a visit # of sympathy, led to a hope that his 
mind might now be more open to a sense of the mise- 
ries of his cruel course. Encouraged therefore by the 
solicitations of their more peaceable neighbours, Mr. 
Williams and his brethren invited Hongi and his war- 
loving allies to a conference on the subject at Keri- 
keri, when, laying before them the sorrows and suffer- 
ings which they brought upon themselves and their 

* We shall have occasion to refer to this visit at a future time. 



102 



DIFFICULTIES. 



people by their present habits, they urged them in the 
most earnest manner to turn to the cultivation of the 
arts of peace. All seemed softened; and some even 
spoke of leaving off fighting at some future time, but 
for the present none would relinquish their purpose of 
avenging the death of the young chief. " You are rush- 
ing into the arms of death as down a precipice," said 
one of the Missionaries. " I know it," returned Hongi, 
" but a man that has a large heart for his friends who 
have been killed, will bid the world farewell, and jump 
down the precipice." Missionaries, "We pray every 
day for you that God may give you new hearts, and 
make you leave off fighting." Hongi, " My heart is as 
hard as a piece of wood, and I cannot stop ; I must go, 
I must kill that one man, Toko," (chief of Kaiparo,) 
"but I believe you speak to us out of love." 

Disappointed in their hope, the Missionaries could 
only still wait upon Grod. 

But the most critical period in the history of the 
Mission, was the beginning of the year 1827. 

A few months previously, Hongi had been visited 
with severe domestic affliction of the most painful and 
mortifying nature, and his health and spirits were so 
much affected that the Missionaries became alarmed as 
to their own personal security ; for, according to New 
Zealand custom, the death of a chief subjects all who 
are under his protection to spoliation and ill-usage, as 
a matter of right, from any who choose to attack them ; 
and insolent messages to this effect were several times 
sent to Keri-keri. The chief himself was already suf- 
fering from this same custom, which permitted a par- 
tial plunder of any one who was, as they called it, 
" broken ;" a band of 200 men visited Waimate, and as 



DANGER. 



103 



a proof of sympathy and regard,* carried off every 
article of property they could find in the village. The 
Missionaries failed not to take this opportunity of re- 
newing their earnest endeavours to lead the mind of 
the chief to eternal things, but all in vain ; his per- 
sonal friendship for themselves was coupled with a 
determined hatred to their message,t and as they saw 
him gradually recovering his health and energy, their 
hearts mourned over the reflection that the salvation 
of his soul was likely to be less and less the object of 
his care. 

Hongi sought to relieve his burdened heart by very 
different means ; and as if the only pleasure he could 
now enjoy was that of inflicting misery on others, 
early in 1827 he set out to attack Whangaroa. As 
usual, he was victorious ; and, as usual, the carnage and 
wanton cruelties that were committed were almost too 
dreadful to be believed. 

In the midst of the confusion, the Wesleyan settle- 
ment was attacked, plundered, and burnt to the ground ; 
and the Missionary families were forced to flee for 
their lives twenty miles on foot, through woods and 
swamps, to the friendly hospitality of Keri-keri. But 
Keri-keri itself, as well as the other stations, was now 
in peril, for Hongi was wounded, and it was said mor- 
tally ; the whole Bay was in commotion ; the turbulent 
party renewed their triumphant threats ; sickening 
scenes of cannibalism were again perpetrated close to 

* It is really considered so ! 

f Col. Mundy is mistaken in stating (See Our Antipodes, vol. ii. 
p. 56) that the Missionaries at any time considered Hongi as 
brought within the pale of Christianity. He always rejected it. 



104 



BANGERS. 



the Mission houses ; and almost every hour brought 
some fresh report of tribe rising against tribe,* while 
the few that desired peace united with the friends of 
the chief in mournful wailings at the prospect of the 
coming storm. 

The Missionaries were greatly alarmed, for they well 
knew the imminent danger they were in ; they met and 
prayed and deliberated ; and the G-od who had sent 
them there gave them courage according to their day, 
and they determined to remain at their posts till ac- 
tually forced away. " When the natives," writes Mr. 
W. Williams at the very time, " are in our houses, 
carrying away our property, it will be time enough for 
us to take to our boats and Mr. XT. Williams, writ- 
ing in the same spirit, says, " Our minds are stayed on 
the Lord, believing that, whatever may be the result, it 
shall tend to his glory." Such was the unanimous 
feeling and resolve throughout the three stations, nor 
was there a wife or mother among them, trembling 
as each must have done for husband and children, that 
shrunk from this decision, or suffered her own feelings 
to unnerve her for active exertion, though some were 
in a state of health that made them peculiarly sus- 
ceptible of alarm and anxiety. 

The Missionaries, however, took the precaution of 
burying their money, concealing the articles in common 
use, and of packing up as quickly as possible and send- 

* The Missionaries' anxieties were increased by the arrival in 
the Bay of a small vessel with sixty convicts, who, while on their way 
to Norfolk Island, had risen on the captain and crew, possessed 
themselves of the ship, and had now landed at Kororarika, perpe- 
trating dreadful outrages, and threatening mors, especially against 
the Missionaries. 



DATsGEKS. 



105 



ing off to Port J ackson, by a vessel just leaving the Bay, 
all their books, stores, and everything they could 
possibly do without ; thus lessening the temptations to 
plunder, as well as securing some portion of their own 
and the Society's property. This last-mentioned step 
alarmed the few chiefs who remained peaceable and 
friendly ; they feared the Missionaries were intending 
themselves to quit the Island ; and Tekoke, Hewa, and 
several others gathered round them, entreating them 
not to leave their posts, and assuring them that in case 
of any attack they would lay down their lives in their 
defence : while "Ware-poaka of Eangi-houa, and all 
the natives residing on the Mission premises at the 
three stations, declared their determination to ac- 
company them, should they be driven away from the 
country. Had an attack been really made, all their 
combined efforts would have availed but little against 
the hundreds of furious aggressors ; but these unex- 
pected proofs of attachment helped to uphold the 
spirits of the Missionary band, and showed the influ- 
ence they had almost insensibly obtained. 

The week passed away slowly and anxiously, some 
fresh report continually arriving to harass and perplex 
them ; but the Sunday services were felt as peculiarly 
soothing and encouraging; * and a day or two afterwards 
they were relieved by finding that Hongi's wound had 
assumed a more favourable appearance, and that he 
was out of immediate danger. Once more things set- 
tled down into their usual course, and the Missionaries 
were again permitted to enjoy a season of quiet. 

* It was January 14th, and the 71st Psalm seemed as if written 
expressly for them, while the 72nd cheered them with its prospect 
of the glorious future. 



106 



DEATH OF HOXGI. 



Hongi liowever never entirely recovered ; lie lingered 
for about a year, and died* on March 5th, 1828. 

And now the destruction of the Missions would have 
been inevitable, had not Grod so wonderfully ordered 
the course of events, that the fiercer portion of the 
neighbouring tribes were absent on an expedition 
against Hokianga on the western coast, while the im- 
mediate adherents of Hongi were restrained from vio- 
lence by the dying injunctions of their late chief. The 
station remained entirely unmolested ; and not only so, 
but just at this very time circumstances arose of so en- 
couraging a character, and forming so new a feature in 
the history of ~New Zealand, that setting aside chrono- 
logy, we shall introduce some of them here, and after- 
wards return to the events of the intermediate period. 

A short time before the death of Hongi, a bold and 
restless chief named Warehumi had found, or invented, 
some pretext for quarrelling with the people of Hoki- 
anga, and gathering round him a number of the fierce 

* Hongi was a very remarkable character, and notwithstanding 
his horrible cruelty and revolting crimes, there was much of noble 
generosity in his conduct and feelings. He had a great respect for 
Europeans, and not even all the insults and treachery he expe- 
rienced from some of the ships that frequented the Bay, could ever 
provoke him to take the life of a white man. Except for a time after 
his return from England, when under the evil influence of one from 
whom better things might have been expected, he was a firm friend 
to the Missionaries ; and though unable to preserve them from sud- 
den attacks or minor injuries, they felt that their lives and property 
were as safe under his protection, as they could expect them to be in 
any lawless community. His last moments were employed in ex- 
horting his survivors to treat them kindly, and on no account to 
provoke them to leave the country. He also gave strict injunctions 
that no slaves should be sacrificed at his death. And yet, as to his 
soul, all was midnight gloom ; he rejected the gospel to the very 
last. 



MEDIATION. 



107 



Ngapuis, proceeded to attack them. After some minor 
events a battle took place, in which Warehumi was 
killed, and his followers routed. By the " common law " 
of ]N"ew Zealand the JSTgapnis must not rest till they 
had obtained "Utu" by the death of some Hokianga 
chief of equal rank with "Warehumi, and they sum- 
moned their allies, the rest of the Bay of Islands chiefs, 
to assist them. Eewa, Tohi-tapu, Ware-poaka, Temar- 
angha, and several others had learnt to hate war, yet 
they dared not disobey the summons. In this strait 
they applied to the Missionaries, telling them their 
desire for peace, but that according to the laws of their 
country they were bound to avenge the death of Ware- 
humi, and proposing that these messengers of heavenly 
peace should undertake to mediate an earthly one. 
The Missionaries were surprised at a request so new, 
and contrary to all native customs ; and though they 
had no expectation of success, yet they consented to 
join the expedition. 

Accordingly, on March 20, 1828, Mr. H. Williams 
set out, joined by Mr. E. Davis, Mr. Kemp, and Mr. 
Clarke, and some of their own native boys ; and accom- 
panied by Eewa. The next day they reached the spot 
where the different parties of JSTgapuis had already 
collected, presenting a really formidable appearance, 
almost every one being armed with a musket. The 
evening was spent in conversation with the rest of the 
chiefs, whom to their agreeable surprise they found 
well disposed to peace, and in witnessing several 
"nakas," or dances, in which the dancers performed so 
vehemently, that the ground actually trembled under 
them. 

The next morning they all proceeded together to the 



108 



MEDIATION. 



scene of action, and after passing through thick woods 
and deep swanrps in a storm of rain and thunder, they 
found themselves at noon in a most beautiful valley 
opposite the Pa of the enemy. At this point the 
valley had spread out into a level plain nearly two 
miles in breadth, dotted with low trees and bushes, and 
well planted with kumeras. Here they speedily formed 
an encampment of temporary huts and booths, and the 
Missionaries were surprised to see with what order and 
regularity all was done, each tribe sitting by itself, 
and yielding implicit obedience to the commands of 
its leader. 

In the afternoon, the chief promoters of the peace 
movement, !Rewa and Tohi-tapu, requested the Mission- 
aries to go into the Pa to ascertain the feelings of the 
enemy towards an amicable arrangement. It was a 
bold request, for nothing was certainly known of the 
dispositions of the Mahurehure ; and should they be ill- 
disposed, the lives of the messengers would probably 
be sacrificed. But the maxim and practice of the 
brethren was to go straight forward in the path of 
duty, and leave the results with God. They resolved 
to undertake the dangerous mission, and Mr. AYilliams 
and Mr. Davis, accompanied by two friendly natives, 
set out. To their thankful joy they found Patuone, 
the chief, very pleased to see them, and well inclined to 
their proposal. After a good deal of conversation with 
him, they returned to the camp with the acceptable 
news, and spent the evening in visiting various chiefs, 
and strengthening their pacific resolutions. The mor- 
row was the Sabbath ; but as all seemed anxious that 
no time should be lost in ratifying a peace, lest the 
slumbering passions of the leaders should by any acei- 



MEDIATION. 



109 



dent be again aroused, the Missionaries thought it con- 
sistent with the spirit of the commandment, not to op- 
pose the general wish, and consented to carry on the 
negotiations the following day. They simply reminded 
"Ware-poaka, Rewa, &c, of the circumstance ; and, to 
the grateful surprise of the brethren, these men imme- 
diately agreed that they would " sit still" on the " E.a- 
tapu" if Mr. Williams could procure the consent ol 
the other chiefs. Tohi-tapu and Uroroa themselves 
addressed the assembled people in very animated 
terms ; and it was agreed on all hands that the busi- 
ness should be deferred till Monday. 

It was a strange and yet very interesting Sabbath, 
that the Missionaries spent among these people'. In 
the morning all was quiet throughout the camp, two 
of the brethren proceeded to the Pa to explain the 
cause of the delay, and to declare to the Mahurehure 
the glad tidings of a Saviour's love ; and the others 
prepared to hold Divine service in the JNgapui camp. 
It was a very striking scene. A large white linen flag 
was hoisted in the middle of the camp. At a little 
distance on either side were the booths and huts of 
the encampment, with many of the people variously 
employed ; behind were the wooded hills they had 
traversed in their way ; in front, across the plain, the 
height was covered with the fortified village of the 
enemy, strong in its rude but picturesque defences of 
stockades, and trenches, and palisades of branches of 
trees ; among which stood the native dwellings. Im- 
mediately around the Missionaries were seated in close 
circles on the ground, attired in their parti-coloured 
mats, five hundred warriors, whom Tohi-tapu had pre- 
vailed on to attend the service, all with immortal souls, 



110 



RECONCILIATION. 



but all in heathen darkness. The Missionaries and 
their school-boys began their service with a hymn, and 
as the melody of heart and lip floated on the air, it 
, seemed to breathe a holy calm around ; and these sons 
of the forest and the battle-field sat silent and attent- 
ive while the messengers of peace told them of Him 
who had shed His blood for them, and offered up prayer 
to Gron for the salvation of their souls. 

The rest of the day was spent by the Missionaries 
in going from hut to hut, speaking more individually 
to the people ; and " thus," writes one of the party, 
" we spent our Sabbath in the midst of this large body 
of armed savages, without the least fear or apprehen- 
sion." How little, when they left their Bay of Islands 
homes, could they have anticipated such a day in the 
Hokianga valley ! 

And now arrived the eventful morning which was 
not only to decide the question of peace and war be- 
tween two powerful tribes, and to result in the pre- 
servation or destruction of human life, but, if peace 
should be concluded, it would, for the first time in 
New Zealand, establish the principle that it was pos- 
sible for a reconciliation to be effected with some other 
" utu" than blood for blood. 

The negotiations were not very complicated : Tohi- 
tapu, though not without some shrinking back, con- 
sented to accompany the Missionaries to the Pa ; when 
they reached the boundary ditch, the white flag was 
planted, and they passed on. Patuone received them 
courteously ; himself accompanied them back to the 
entrance of the village, and sent forward his eldest son 
und other persons of distinction to the flag of peace. 
Rewa came forward from the camp, crossed the ditch, 



PEACE. 



Ill 



rubbed noses with the Mahure-hure. and peace was 
concluded. 

A loud noise was now heard in the camp, and soon a 
body of 700 men were seen advancing in great order, 
threading their way among the bushes on the plain. 
A stranger would have trembled for the result ; for 
when within 150 yards of the flag, they rushed forward 
with a horrid yell. But it was all in clue order, and 
after both parties had performed various "nakas," and 
fired volleys of musketry, they quietly dispersed ; and 
the chiefs rejoiced to get their excitable followers once 
more on their road homewards. 

Thus happily terminated this courageous attempt to 
mediate between two hostile tribes ; the blessing ol 
God was on it ; and, as Mr. W. "Williams observes, a 
more evident inroad was made in the kingdom of the 
great enemy than had yet been seen % 



CHAPTEE X. 



ARRIVAL OF MORE MISSIONARIES — PREACHING IN THE VILLAGES 
RANGHI DUDI-DUDI. 

" I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and will bring 
you to Zion." — Jer. iii. 14. 

Ik the preceding chapter Ave have brought the )u er 
history of the Mission down to the end of the year 
1828 ; and now, escaping for a while from tales of 
dangers, alarms, and fightings, we will enter the settle- 
ments themselves, and see what progress had bee:i 
made, especially in spiritual things. 

We will go back to the year 1824, when it had 
pleased the Grod of peace to send forth more messen- 
gers of peace, and to cheer the hearts and strengthen 
the hands of the earlier labourers by the arrival of Mr. 
and Mrs. Clarke, Mr. and Mrs. E, Davis, and Mr. C. 
Davis.* 

As the brethren had increased in number, so had 
they extended their spheres of labour ; and while the 
outward aspect of the settlements had continually im- 
proved, so was there an advance in more important 
things. ~Not only had the houses of the Missionaries 
become more like the dwellings of civilized life, and 

* All of these were farmers or mechanics ; but all were men of 
piety, zeal, and intelligence, and devoted to the great work of bring- 
ing sinners to the Saviour. Mr. C. Davis was unhappily lost at sea 
some little time afterwards, in returning from Port Jackson. 



lilPEOTEMENT. 



113 



their gardens grown rich in vegetables, fruits, and 
flowers ; but their schools had increased, the children 
were less frequently taken away, and were making fair 
progress in Scriptural knowledge as well as in reading, 
writing, and sewing. The fresh land that had been 
taken into cultivation afforded employment for a greater 
number of natives ; these were encouraged to settle on 
the Mission property, and many of them attended an 
evening school, and seemed really anxious for instruc- 
tion. At Keri-keri a small cliapel was erected ; and 
though in the seasons of excitement we have spoken 
of in the last chapter not more perhaps than two or 
three would be present at Divine worship, yet in 
quieter times there were often forty or fifty in the con- 
gregation, dressed in European clothes, # and filling 
the Missionaries' hearts with hope by the attention 
with which they listened to the services ; while, with 
regard to the brethren themselves, the dangers and 
anxieties they experienced, only served to quicken 
their zeal, to draw them more closely to each other in 
the bonds of Christian love, and to strengthen their 
confidence in their Covenant Grod. 

One little incident that occurred in April, 1826, 
made a considerable impression at Keri-keri. A 
Christian chief from the newly evangelized Tahiti ar- 
rived on a visit to the settlement ; and as his native 
tongue was so similar to that of the Maoris as to allow 

* The Missionaries encouraged the use of European clothing, by 
providing their school-children with it for their Sunday wear, and 
by frequent presents of it to the adults in their employ. It became 
quite the fashion to Avear something European on the Sunday, even 
in the villages, and though the articles were sometimes strangely mis- 
placed, yet the feeling was a hopeful one. 



114 



IMPROVEMENT. 



of free coimmmication, # he readily acceded to the re- 
quest of the Missionaries to address their people. 
With his Bible in his hand, this once blinded idolater 
stood before the assembled group ; his face beamed 
with love, his voice trembled with emotion, while he 
read to them John iii. 16, 17, and told them of what 
Tahiti had been and what it now was. As he spoke 
to them of the mighty change that had been wrought 
upon himself and his countrymen, every eye was 
rivetted on him, and as he urged them to turn to Grod, 
and prayed that the Holy Spirit might lead them to 
the Saviour, the Missionaries felt an earnest hope that 
his exhortations and his prayers would be blessed and 
answered. 

How gladly would the brethren have given them- 
selves wholly up to the spiritual instruction of these 
poor people ! but secular objects still demanded their 
attention. Yet even in the midst of their manual oc- 
cupations they ceased not to labour for souls, and the 
simplest employment gave opportunity for conversation 
on the highest subjects. A tree had just been felled ; 
the weary Missionary sat down upon it, and calling 
his native fellow-workmen round him, spoke to them 
of the concerns of their souls. 

There was however much direct Missionary work 
carried on during this time. Every Sunday afternoon 
was specially set apart for visiting the neighbouring 
villages, and the sight of a red flag at one village and a 
white one at another, hoisted in honour of the Ra~tapu, 
or consecrated day, often quickened the steps of the 
downcast Missionary, and warmed his heaH to speak 
with more lively feeling of the things of G od. It was 
seldom that he did not find some at least assembled 
* See page 12. 



SUNDAYS IN THE TILLAGES. 



115 



ready for him, and generally the whole village, men, 
women, and children, were gathered together. Here 
might be seen the old and the young, the sick and the 
blind, the chiefs and the slaves, seated in a semicircle 
before their teacher, and listening to the words of life. 
At one place a plank was always brought for the Mis- 
sionary to sit upon ; at another, one of the calabashes 
was tapued, that the water he drank might be always 
clean ; and often he was not suffered to depart without 
partaking of their evening meal of kumeras, potatoes, 
and melons. 

It is true that the gospel message was sometimes 
heard with apathy and unconcern ; and the chiefs, 
rolled up in their mats, would stretch themselves on 
the ground as if half asleep ; — and that, at other times, 
the only response would be, " We will receive your re- 
ligion if you will insure our never dying. We are 
afraid of death, we cannot bear to part with our family 
and our friends, for we know not what will be in an- 
other world." Or perhaps they would say, "White 
man's Atua very good for white man, but not for New 
Zealander; we will keep our own Atua." Yet the 
Missionaries still persevered, hoping that some seeds 
of truth might unconsciously penetrate into their hard 
hearts, and occasionally the remarks of these wild men 
were in a very different tone, and might profit even a 
Christian's heart. "How happy you must be," said 
the people of Tepuke, on more than one occasion, to 
Mr. Davis, " to know that your Atua loves you, and 
that you have such a blessed place to go to when you 
die ! We will listen to you, but our hearts are very 
dark." Both Mr. W. Williams and Mr. Davis were 
much interested in Tepuke ; and one or the other visited 

T 2 



116 



TEPUKE. 



it, if possible, every Sunday. The latter, writing on 
August 7th, 1825, says, "I was again at Tepuke ; the 
chief was absent, but I spoke to those present on the 
subject of prayer. c Our hearts are dark,' they 
answered, 4 we do not know how to pray. 5 I asked 
them, 'Have you a desire for these things?' to 
which they replied, ' Our hearts are very big with 
desire." 5 Just then Mr. Davis saw the absent chief 
with a number of other people running as hard as they 
could across the valley towards him ; and found that 
he had been three miles off to remind the people 
of a distant hamlet of its being the Sabbath, and 
was now hurrying back, expecting to be in time to 
join in the service of the day. Soon after, another 
chief came up, excusing himself for the lateness of his 
arrival, by saying he had been fishing. Mr. Davis re- 
proved him for this breach of the sacred day ; to which 
he answered, " My heart is very sick about it, but I 
did not know it was the Ea-tapu." He then complain- 
ed of his own village not having been visited for two 
or three Sundays ; and would hardly be satisfied when 
told that it was the badness of the weather that had 
alone prevented any one from coming to him. 

Tepuke was one of the most encouraging of the sur- 
rounding villages. The anxiety of the inhabitants for 
instruction, their regular observance of the Sabbath,, 
their growing dislike of war, added to their recollection 
of Mr. Marsden's conversations, and the assurance of 
one of the chiefs that he had begun to pray for himself ; 
all these things combined, led the Missionaries to hope 
and expect that this people would be among the first- 
fruits of their labour. But " God seeth not as man 
seeth." "The wind bloweth where it listeth;" and 



OBSEEVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 



117 



as late as 1835, we only read that Tepuke was " in a 
very promising state." 

Here we must pause for a moment, and call attention 
to the readiness of these poor heathen to keep holy the 
Sabbath day. As we proceed, we shall find still more 
striking instances of it, and it is very remarkable that 
where the cldefs themselves observed the day, they per- 
mitted their slaves, to whom every other privilege was 
denied, to do the same, and work of every kind was 
suspended throughout the village. There were even 
cases of distant villages, that had never seen a Mission- 
ary, in which the people refrained from work merely 
on the report of other natives. In one of Mr. AY. Wil- 
liams' exploring journeys to the North, a chief near 
Whangaroa touchingly strengthened his urgent plea 
for a teacher on this very ground. " Send us," said he, 
" some one to teach us ; we have no one, but we do all 
we can, we sit still on the Ba-tapu." # 

Still the Missionaries moivrned over the luifruitful- 
ness of their labours as to the conversion of souls. It 
had been comparatively easy to dig then fields and plant 
their gardens ; and it was pleasant to gather the abund- 
ant produce : — to drop a peach-stone into the ground, 
and ere long to enjoy the delicious fruit ; but to break 
up the fallow ground of the natural heart was beyond 

* The same circumstance "will doubtless be remembered with re- 
gard to the islands of the Pacific. Whence arises this -willingness 
in uncivilized nations to observe a day of rest ? Is there some unde- 
fined feeling that the physical frame requires it ? or is it that the 
original appointment of God in the days of man's innocence still 
finds an unconscious response in his fallen and degraded heart? 
Whatever be the cause, how does the conduct of these unenlight- 
ened savages condemn those professing Christians who either them- 
selves desecrate the holy day, or tempt others to do so ! 



118 



RANGHI. 



their power ; the heavens over them were as brass, and 
the earth as iron, for no dew of the Spirit had yet ap- 
peared to descend on the hard Maori heart ; and they 
were made more and more to feel, as Mr. "Williams ex- 
pressed it, "how little control one man's heart has 
over another ; it is the Spirit that quickeneth." And 
this Holy Spirit who quickeneth whom He will,* first 
showed His Almighty power in an unexpected quar- 
ter. 

One of the villages visited frequently from Paihia 
was Tiwalliwatte, where the Missionaries always re- 
ceived a hearty welcome from the aged chief Ranghi. 
The old man strictly observed the B,a-tapu himself, and 
the red flag, regularly hoisted on the sacred day, in- 
vited his people to observe it also. But for many 
months there was nothing in Eanghi' s conversation or 
manner to indicate any peculiar interest in the gospel 
message, except that on one or two occasions he was 
observed to be more than usually attentive, and there 
appeared once even a shade of anxiety across his brow. 
But on July 17th, 1825, upon Mr. Williams and his 
companions paying him their accustomed visit, they 
found him ill with a sore throat and cough. Mr. 'Wil- 
liams entered into conversation with him ; and as the 
aged man spoke of Adam's first transgression, as the 
cause of all the pain and sorrow now in the world, the 

* There had been a hopeful appearance of a work of grace in a 
young man who died at Keri-keri in the autumn of 1824, and who, 
as his end approached, anxiously sought for instruction, begged Mr. 
Clarke to pray with him, and was often heard to pray by himself; 
but though his friends hoped and believed that God had mercy 
upon him, there was not sufficient evidence of a change of heart to 
show that it was a case of real conversion. 



BAFGHI. 



119 



Missionary's heart rejoiced to find how well he had 
profited by the instruction he had received. " What," 
continued Mr. Williams, " are your thoughts of death ? " 
"My thoughts," he ansAvered, "are continually in 
heaven ; in the morning, in the day-time, and at night 
they are there ; my belief is in the great God, and in 
Jestjs Christ." "But do you," asked the Missionary, 
" at times think that our God is not your God, and 
that you will not go to heaven?" "Yes, this is the 
way my heart sometimes thinks when alone ; I think I 
shall go to heaven, and then I think perhaps I shall 
not go to heaven ; and perhaps this God of the white 
people is not my God, and perhaps He is ; and then 
after I have been thinking in this way, and my heart 
is dark for some time, then it becomes lighter, and the 
thought that I shall go to heaven remains the last." 
Afterwards he said, " I pray several times in the day ; 
I ask God to give me His Holy Spirit in my heart to 
sit and dwell there." On a subsequent occasion he 
repeated the same doubts, but his hope seemed 
strengthening. " What do you think of the love of 
Christ ? " "I think of the love of Christ, and ask 
Him to wash this bad heart, and take away this 
native heart, and give me a new heart." "Do you 
ever attempt to teach your neighbours?" " Yes, I do, 
but they will not listen." After this his friends en- 
deavoured to draw him aside to some of their super- 
stitious observances ; but he remained firm and sted- 
fast in rejecting them. He gradually grew worse ; 
but as the outward man decayed, the inner man seemed 
to grow stronger and stronger. September 11th, in 
the midst of much suffering he said, " I think I shall 
soon die, my flesh has wasted away, and I am only 



120 



CHRISTIAN RAtfGHI. 



skill and bone. I think I shall go to heaven above 
the sky, because I have believed all that you have told 
me about God and Jesus Christ." " But what pay- 
ment can you take to Grod for your sins against 
Him?" "I have nothing to give Him, only I believe 
in Him the true Grod, and in Jesus Christ." 

Still his hope grew stronger. On the 14th, though 
worn down with weakness and pain, he turned his head 
as the Missionary entered, and in a faint voice, but 
with a look of joy and satisfaction, answered his in- 
quiries with, " I shall soon be dead ; my heart is very, 
very full of light.' ' " What makes it so?" " Because 
T believe in Jehovah, and in Jesus Christ." " Are you 
still firm in your belief?" " Have I not told you over 
and over again, that my faith is stedfast?" "Have 
you no fear of death ?" " JSTo, none, not in the least. 
I shall go and sit above the sky with Jesus Christ." 
Mr. Williams had before spoken to him of baptism, and 
now consulted with his brethren on the subject. They 
had watched his character and conduct for some months ; 
they now saw his stedfastness on the verge of the grave, 
and his firm resistance of all the native superstitions; and 
though there was not that deep conviction of sin they 
would have desired, they all agreed that in the present 
early state of things, more satisfactory evidence could 
not be expected. He was therefore baptized by the 
name of Christian, in the presence of many of his 
countrymen, who seemed somewhat impressed with 
what they saw and heard. " To us," adds Mr. Williams, 
" it was a season of joy and gladness ; a period to 
which I had been looking with great interest. Sur- 
rounded by those who would gladly have drawn him 
back, he boldly, in the presence of them all, spoke of 



RAKGIrHOUA. 



121 



the darkness that once encompassed his soul, and of 
the sure and certain hope that now possessed it. Is 
not this a brand plucked from the burning ?" 

And now the Missionaries' hopes ran high that the 
long looked for harvest was close at hand, and that it 
would please Grod to show the power of His grace by 
bringing many more to a knowledge of Himself. But 
His time was not yet come, and His servants were 
called on to work, and pray, and wait, for two more 
years before they could discern any evidence of the dew 
of heavenly grace descending on their people. The 
outward improvement at B,angi-houa was very great. 
Mr. King says, " When I contrast former things with 
present, I am filled with wonder and thankfulness. The 
people are quite quiet and peaceable ; the school-boys 
can answer correctly, when questioned on many points 
of Scripture knowledge ; they repeat the Lord's Prayer 
and other short petitions, the Ten Commandments, 
and the Creed; they can sing some of the songs of 
Zion ; and their parents are so pleased at their reading 
and writing, that when they want anything from the 
Missionaries they make the children write a note about 
it. But there are no marks of true conversion, no 
knowledge, even among the adults, of sin or of future 
punishment. They need precept upon precept, much 
patience, perseverance, and forbearance. Yet we do 
not despair — a change of heart is the work of the Holy 
Spirit, and we need not doubt His eventual blessing, 
if only we continue in well-doing." 

This was written in November, 1826, when twelve 
long years had passed since Mr. King first landed at 
Rangi-houa,* — twelve years of indefatigable labour and 

* Mr. Hall had been obliged to leave the Island in consequence 



122 



DUDI-DUDI. 



unwearied patience; but now a "blessing" was closer 
at hand than he anticipated. 

Among the young men who had been in the employ 
of Mr. Hall, and whom he had on his departure trans- 
ferred to Mr. King, was Dudi-dudi. He was slave to 
one of the smaller chiefs of the village, having been 
captured in some war with the people of the south, and 
was hired from him by the Missionaries. Dudi-dudi, 
like the rest of the servants, had had great pains taken 
with him ; he had learnt to read and write, could re- 
peat several hymns and prayers, he could correctly 
answer questions upon several points of Christian doc- 
trine, and was faithful and diligent in his work. Yet 
his heart remained unchanged, he hated the light, and 
continued to find his pleasiire in the w^ays of ungodli- 
ness. He fell sick ; and, with a sense of right and 
w T rong we should hardly have expected, he told Mr. 
King that as he could not work it was not fair that he 
should eat, and proposed returning to his master. Mr. 
King, who valued his faithful services, and felt really 
interested in him, and saw that he was never likely to 
recover, told him in reply that he would not turn him 
away, that he was free to go if he wished it, but if 
not, he should remain with him, and be supplied with 
whatever he might want. The poor fellow was over- 
joyed ; he knew full well that had he gone back to his 
master, everything, even to his blanket, would have 
been taken from him ; he would have been put into 
some shed away from the village, and had only fern- 
root and water given him. But neither his illness, nor 
this unexpected alleviation, led his heart to Grod ; he 

of ill health, in April, 1825, to the great grief of the people, who had 
learnt to lore him as a father and a friend. 



DUBI-DUDI. 



123 



continued dead in sin, and turned away from all per- 
sonal instruction. In tins state he continued for some 
months, too ill to work, but not too ill to get about ; 
when early in 1827 it happened that a war expedition 
returned home from the South with its usual train of 
miserable captives. Dudi-dudi's feelings were moved 
as he looked on them, and thought of his own former 
sufferings ; and he listened with interest and attention 
to a very serious and solemn address made by Mr. King 
to the chiefs, on the certain consequences of these and 
all other evil courses. 

They were no new truths that were now brought 
forward; Dudi-dndi had repeatedly heard the same 
warnings and the same invitations ; but they had 
hitherto merely lain on the surface of his heart, or 
been "caught away" by the enemy of his peace. 
Now however the Spirit of Grod was effecting a mighty 
change in him ; the truths were carried home, and 
pierced his inmost soul as with an arrow. " When the 
commandment came, sin revived," and he as it were 
" died," — his indifference was changed into an abhor- 
rence of his former evil ways ; and a deep sorrow for his 
wilful blindness under the means of grace, succeeded to 
a careless unconcern. His distressed heart found relief 
only in prayer ; and " Grive me. Lord, Thy Holy Spirit 
to cleanse my heart ; — Take from me all darkness and 
enlighten my mind ; — Wash me in the blood of Thy dear 
Son, and take me to heaven when I die." These and 
such like petitions were continually heard when he 
thought himself alone ; and our prayer-hearing and 
prayer-answering Grod listened to the cry of this poor 
youth ; an assurance of pardon and acceptance in the 



124 



DUBI-DUDI. 



Eeloved was vouchsafed him, and bis soul was filled 
with joy and peace. 

During the last five months of his life, though 
doubts and fears occasionally crossed his mind, the light 
of God's countenance was never long withheld from 
him ; and the last days of his earthly pilgrimage were 
full of confident hope and lively joy. " I am not afraid 
to die," said he to Mr. Shepherd, " for I am sure that 
God loves me, and will save me." " How can you ex- 
pect that? for GrOD cannot but punish sinners." " Yes," 
replied Dudi-dudi, " but God gave His Son to die for 
sinners, and I believe in Jesus Christ." " The Sun- 
day before he died," wrote Mr. King, " I went to him 
early in the morning. Eefore I could speak, he said 
with a calm and cheerful countenance, ' I am not afraid 
to die now, though I have often been afraid ; but I 
will wait patiently and bear the pain till God is pleased 
to take my soul, which is now light and joyful ; for God 
is loving to me.' I said to him, ' Pear not, believe in 
Jesus ; pray to Him, and resign thy soul into His 
hands. He will receive it.' He said, ' Last night, 
through pain of body, I forgot to pray before I fell 
asleep, and when I woke my heart began inquiring, 
Where is Jesus Christ ? where is Jesus Christ, who 
died for me ? Then my soul rejoiced and praised God, 
and prayed Him to forgive me my sin and forgetful- 
Hess. I shall soon be in heaven.' " In this happy state 
he continued, his heart, as he expressed it, " leaping for 
joy," when any one came to talk to him of heavenly 
things, till, on the 14th of August, 1827, his spirit de- 
parted to be with Christ, leaving Mr. King to rejoice 
with humble thankfulness at this the first-fruits of his 
unwearied labours. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



PROGRESS OF MISSION — SCHOOLS — BAPTISMS — REV. S. MARSDEN's 
SIXTH VISIT. 

" Son of man, can these bones live ? And I answered, O Lord God, 
Thou knowest." — Ezek. xxxvii. 3. 

Now surely the set time was come for the deliver- 
ance of New Zealand from the yoke of Satan ; surely 
now the Missionaries might expect to see many others 
added to the church ! 

Again we have to learn that our time is not God's 
time ; for nearly three more years had run their course 
ere the servants of Grod could rejoice over another in- 
stance of conversion. 

Yet their efforts were not slackened ; they still 
worked as they had ever done ; the neighbouring vil- 
lages were still as diligently visited ; and now and then 
a transient gleam of hope would cheer them, when 
some half-awakened listener would acknowledge the 
force of what he heard ; such as when Wini, Christian 
Eangi's brother, exclaimed to Mr. W\ "Williams, " I 
am bad with vexation at the exceeding fixedness of my 
bad heart." 

"Within the settlements, the instruction was carried 
on as carefully as before ; and in many respects there 
was an evident improvement. There were even natives 
unconnected with the Mission, who, struck with the 
increased comfort of the labourers employed about the 



126 



TAIWUNGA. 



station, obtained leave for themselves to settle on the 
Mission land. One of these was Taiwunga, a man of 
note among his people : he had formerly lived in Chris- 
tian families at Paramatta and at Keri-keri ; bnt his 
untamed spirit longed for war again, and he had joined 
Hongi in one of his expeditions to the South. 

But at last he had grown tired of fighting, and set- 
tled himself near Mr. Davis at Paihia, where we find 
him, in 1826, building a raupo house, with three rooms, 
after the European fashion, and with a field and garden 
filled with wheat and Ecglish vegetables. 

Hongi, who knew his bravery, urged him to accom- 
pany him to Kaiparo ; but Taiwunga had begun to 
taste the sweets of a settled life, and resisted all his 
importunities. " Before you let me live at your place," 
said he to Mr. Davis, " I loved country ways ; but now 
that I have a house and garden,* I love your ways ; 
and," added he, " my heart too is very good for your 
prayers and instructions." His wife, as well as himself, 
was very industrious, they conducted themselves ex- 
tremely well, and wished to bring up their children 
like Europeans ; but no sign of spiritual life appeared 
in either of them. 

The chief source however of encouragement to the 
Missionaries was the growing desire of instruction 
among their own natives, and the progress they made. 
The possession of printed books, in their own language, 
had greatly stimulated their thirst for knowledge ; and 
when in 1827 Mr. Davis brought back with him from 
Sydney the first three chapters of Genesis, the 20th of 

* Well might Taiwunga prefer his garden to the field of battle ; 
it was full of peas, onions, turnips, cucumbers, vines, melons, 
peaches, &c. &c. 



SCHOOL EXAMINATION. 



127 



Exodus, the 5th of St. Matthew, the 1st of St. John, 
the Lord's Prayer, and some hymns, all printed in 
Maori, their delight was unbounded ; and it was with 
difficulty that some of them could be restrained from 
taking immediate and forcible possession of these new 
treasures. 

There were at this time above a hundred natives liv- 
ing on the Mission property at Paihia, and a propor- 
tionate number at Keri-keri and Rangi-houa. All these 
regularly attended the daily morning and evening 
worship ; the children were daily instructed in the 
schools ; and the adults were assembled, three times in 
the week, to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
in addition to the word of God. 

As soon as the scholars seemed to be sufficiently ad- 
vanced, the experiment was tried of an Annual General 
Examination, and was found to succeed extremely welh 
This was so new a feature in ]S~ew Zealand, that we 
shall devote a page or two to the account of one of 
these gatherings ; and shall select the second, held at 
Keri-keri on Dec, 8, 1829. 

We may imagine the bustle of previous preparation 
in the settlement itself ; for, inclusive of those on the 
spot, food and lodging for three days were to be pro- 
vided for a party of 290 ; and the only housekeeping 
resources of the Keri-keri Missionaries lay in their 
own farm and storehouse. However, all was ready hi 
good time, and the school boys and girls were assem- 
bled on the river's bank to welcome their expected 
visitors. About 11 o'clock the party came in sight. 
Eirst, two boats with the European families of Eangi- 
houa and Paihia, rowed by native school-boys dressed 
in duck trowsers, striped shirts, and Scotch caps ; then 



128 SCHOOL EXAMINATION. 



three other beats and two canoes brought the girls 
dressed in blue frocks and white aprons, and all the 
rest of the natives of the two settlements. Every boat 
had a little flag ; and as the summer sun shone bright 
upon the river, and lighted up the eager faces, it was a 
scene not to be soon forgotten. As the boats drew 
near, no hideous native jell met their ears, but three 
hearty British cheers burst forth from the river's side, 
echoed again and again by the parties on the water. 
It was a happy gathering that day at Keri-keri : in- 
cluding the children, the Europeans amounted to 
seventy-two ; of the natives sixty-eight were girls, the 
rest were men and boys. 

After joining in Divine service, the examination be- 
gan, and proved entirely satisfactory. Many ques- 
tions on the chief truths of our holy religion were 
correctly answered, the reading and writing of the differ- 
ent classes were very good, and the first class of men 
and boys were perfect in the first five rules of arithme- 
tic. The examination was not exclusively intellectual, 
the girls' needlework was shown, and pronounced to 
be very neatly executed ; and the native carpenters 
exhibited specimens of their skill in a pannelled door, 
a gate, a window-frame, a table, and a stool, all of 
which would have done credit to an European work- 
man. 

The Missionaries' hearts were moved, and Mr. W. 
Williams thus records some of the thoughts that passed 
through his own mind : " Here, thought I, are a number 
of poor cannibals collected from different tribes,* whose 
fathers were so savage, that for ten years the first 

* One of the lads was the son of a chief, 140 miles from the Bay. 



SCHOOL EXAMINATION. 



129 



Missionaries, who lived among them with so much pain 
and vexation, often expected to he devoured by them. 
A few years ago these very individuals were ignorant 
of every principle of religion, many of them had feasted 
on human blood and gloried in it ; but now there is 
not one among them who is not in some degree ac- 
quainted with the truths of the Christian religion, 
which, with the blessing of God, may be the means of 
his conversion. JSTot six years ago, they commenced 
with the very rudiments of learning ; now, many of 
them can read and write their own language with pro- 
priety, and are masters of the first rules of arithmetic. 
But a very few years ago, a chisel made of stone was 
their only tool ; now they not only have our tools but 
are learning to use them. It is true that these are 
but small things compared with the greater and more 
permanent blessings we look for ; yet I appeal to our 
friends in England, and ask them whether the Lord 
has not already done great things, yea, marvellous 
things, in this dark land." 

Prayer and the word of God accompanied the ex- 
amination ; the older members of the Mission passed 
the intervals of rest in refreshing social intercourse, 
the younger ones in recreations suited to their age ; 
and it would have stirred the heart of the most in- 
different to have here seen the fair-haired children 
of the dktant Xorth, mingling with the groups of dark- 
eyed sons and daughters of the fierce Maoris, and 
roaming with them fearlessly through the gardens and 
the fields. 

At last the time so ardently desired, so earnestly 
prayed for, was drawing near, when the Spirit should 



130 



BAPTISMS OF CHILDREN'. 



be poured from on high, and the wilderness should be- 
come a fruitful field ; when some from among this 
stubborn people, in full health, and in the prime of life, 
should bend their iron necks to the gentle yoke of 
Christ, should come forward to renounce all to w T hich 
they had hitherto so firmly, so obstinately clung, and 
should publicly dedicate themselves to the Lord. 

The first approach to this decided step was a wish 
expressed by some of the people that their children 
might be baptized ; two of the Keri-keri natives, Taua 
and Eangi, had some time before, brought their infant 
to the baptismal font ; and in August, 1829, the hearts 
of the Paihia Missionaries glowed with hope, w r hen the 
once ferocious Taiwunga put the following note into 
their hands. " Here I am, thinking of the day when 
my son shall be baptized. You are the messengers of 
G-oci ; therefore I wish that he should be baptized ac- 
cording to your ways. I have cast off my native ideas, 
and my native thoughts. Here I sit thinking, and 
untying the rope of the devil ; and it is shaken that it 
may fall off. Jesus Christ perhaps is near to see my 
evils, and to look into the hearts of men. It is well 
perhaps that the heart should grieve in the morning, 
in the evening, and at night, that every sin may be 
blotted out." 

"We cannot doubt the answer to this request; 
and on August 23rd, after the second lesson, Mr. W. 
"Williams baptized the four children of Taiwunga, to- 
gether with an infant of his own. It was a very affect- 
ing service, the natives were very attentive, and Mr. 
Williams hoped that it might lead some of them to 
become thoughtful for themselves. 

Soon after the baptism of theee children, Mr. Davis 



PITA AND HIS WIFE. 



131 



was suddenly sent for to a woman who was taken alarm-* 
ingly ill, and did not seem likely to recover. She was 
the wife of Pifa, one of his workmen, who had at first 
been received into his household ; but his wife, a young 
woman from Boto-rua, far to the south, was so inso- 
lent and troublesome, that Mr. Davis was obliged to 
send them from his house, and built a cottage for them 
close by. Pita himself was of a very quiet, gentle dis- 
position, much attached to his master, and very anxious 
for instruction. He frequently accompanied him in 
his visits to the villages, and would often, of his own 
accord, remain behind to enforce or to explain his ex- 
hortations. After some time he went down to Boto-rua 
with his wife to see her relations, and remained absent 
so long, that Mr. Davis, who knew how susceptible he 
was of the influence of others, grew uneasy, and feared 
that he had been insnared into his former practices, 
and would shrink from returning to Paihia. 

At last, however, they both came back ; and to Mr. 
Davis's great satisfaction he found that their prolonged 
absence had been occasioned by Pita's anxiety to teach 
the people of Boto-rua something of the love of Christ; 
and that his time had been spent in endeavouring to 
impress a few simple truths upon their minds. 

It was to the sick-bed of this woman that Mr. Davis 
was now summoned. He went with a heavy heart, 
not knowing what fresh arguments he could use to 
prevail with her to give her heart to God ; but, to his 
utter astonishment, he found her entirely changed. 
She had become meek and docile, was already well- 
informed in Divine truths, and anxious to make further 
progress. In the course of conversation she told him 
that she had been secretly a believer for more than a 
k 2 



132 



BAPTISMS. 



year; that she had been made deeply sensible of the 
wickedness of her own heart, and often retired by her- 
self for private prayer. She spoke calmly of her ap- 
parently approaching death, and of her going to be 
with Christ, and urged Mr. Davis to " call aloud " to 
the natives round to turn to Grod. We may imagine 
the joy of the Missionary at this the first decided in- 
stance of awakening among the people at Paihia, in- 
creased as it was by the unexpected recovery of the 
woman, and her continuance in the same state of mind 
and conduct. It was not long before she and her hus- 
band applied for baptism ; Taiwunga joined them ; and 
on the 7th of February, 1830, the first public adult 
baptism took place in JSTew Zealand ; and these three 
intelligent Maoris stood forth in the midst of the con- 
gregation at Paihia, to declare their faith in Christ 
crucified, to renounce all their former ways, to profess 
themselves the faithful soldiers and servants of their 
[Redeemer, and to receive the outward seal of the 
covenant of grace. All were deeply moved — Taiwunga 
especially so ; and tears of penitence and love fell fast 
from eyes that, but a few short years before, had loved 
to feast themselves on scenes of carnage and of canni- 
balism^ 

* Taiwunga was baptized by the name of David, or, according to 
native pronunciation, Raiviri; Pita, by that of Peter ; and his wife 
was named Mary. 

Mrs. H. Williams, writing of this event, and especially alluding to 
Taiwunga, says, 

" Taiwunga, a relation and once a follower of Hongi in his 
bloody triumphs, but who has for nearly five years turned his 
sword into a ploughshare, and who, from his rank and influence 
and naturally strong passions, has had many and deep struggles, has 
been wonderfully influenced. When I saw him advance from the 
other end of our crowded chapel, with firm step, but subdued coun- 



AWAKENINGS. 



133 



This baptism served not only to strengthen the faith 
of the baptized, but to deepen the impression already 
made upon many of the other natives ; a spirit of 
earnest inquiry was poured out on numbers, and the 
settlement assumed a new appearance. Hitherto the 
leisure hours of the people had been passed in dancing, 
singing, or sleeping ; but now they met together in little 
bands to read and pray, or visited the Missionaries for 
more personal instruction. Mr. "W. Williams writes, 
on March 3rd, 1830, " Could our friends in England 
witness what we witness every evening, they would 
indeed rejoice with us. The interest formerly mani- 
fested by a few in this settlement has become almost 
general ; and the cry, as soon as evening prayers are 
over, is, £ May we not come to you and talk ? ' " 

At this time the evenings of all the Missionaries at 
this station were taken up in conversations with the 
newly awakened. Sometimes twenty or thirty would 
come together for general instruction ; others would 
come alone to talk more freely on their own personal 
salvation ; and the different states of mind in the 
different inquirers gave good reason to believe that a 
real work of the Holy Spirit was being carried on in 
their hearts. Some would speak of their strong desire 
to give up their hearts to God; others confess with 
sorrow that as yet their desire was very weak: one 
mourned over the hardness of his heart, and another 
was rejoicing in the light that had visited his soul ; 
while one poor man touchingly related to Mr. Davis 

tenance, an object of interest to every native as well as European 
eye, and meekly krjeel, where six months before we had, at his own 
request, all stood sponsors for his four little children ; I deeply felt 
that it was the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes." 



AFFRAY AT KORORARIKA. 



the loss lie had sustained in spiritual things by a visit 
he had lately paid to his heathen relations at Tauranga.* 

But while the Missionaries were employed in this 
blessed, but anxious and laborious work, they were 
suddenly called upon to mingle in a very different 
scene. The wickedness of the masters and crews of 
many of the vessels that visited the Bay had very 
frequently led to quarrels and skirmishes with the 
natives ; but at this juncture the more than com- 
monly infamous conduct of the master of a whaler, 
then at Kororarika, stirred the passions of the Xew 
Zealanders to a higher pitch than usual ; and as some 
of the people took part with the offender, it was de- 
termined to have recourse to arms. Kororarika was 
not more than two miles from Paihia, on the opposite 
shore of the little inner bay on which the settlement 
stands ; and Tohi-tapu, and some of the peaceable 
chiefs, applied as before to the Missionaries for their 
mediation. They lost not an hour in using their 
utmost efforts, and at one time hoped they had suc- 
ceeded ; but the feelings of some of the chiefs had been 
too deeply wounded, the dispute broke out again, the 
country round Paihia was filled with parties of fighting 
men, an engagement took place, and the beach at 
Kororarika was stained with Maori blood. 

In the midst of this commotion, a ship was seen to 
enter the Bay ; she anchored near Paihia; and soon the 
word flew swiftly through the settlement, that Mr, 

* One of the inquirers in conversation with Mr. W.Williams 
suggested, that perhaps the difficulty he found in believing arose 
from his not being able to write ; to which a friend of his standing 
by immediately replied, " Writing has nothing to do with enlighten- 
ing the heart." 



MR. MABSDE^. 



135 



Marsden was on board. This venerated name seemed 
to carry with it some soothing charm, and the news of 
his arrival inspired Europeans and natives with hopes 
of peace. Even the wild combatants of Kororarika 
felt its influence, and invited him to mediate between 
them. Xo abatement of physical strength, no fear of 
danger or fatigue, could hinder Mr. Marsden from 
responding to the invitation. He passed from the 
mainland to the islands, from the islands to the main- 
land, engaged in anxious negociations ; but with all 
his efforts it was many days ere he could succeed in 
allaying their angry passions, and in persuading them 
to cease from bloodshed. 

What a contrast during those days did the Mission 
station at Paihia present to the eye and heart of this 
good man ! Here was a body of more than a hundred 
natives, unmoved by the excitement going on around, 
to the astonishment of their fighting countrymen 
quietly pursmng their usual avocations, and though at 
times the fighting was almost close to them, never 
even leaving their work to go and see what was going 
on. # 

But a deeper joy filled the heart of this venerable 
servant of God, when on Sunday the 14th he met the 
congregation of Paihia. Here were assembled before 
him all the natives of the settlement, neatly dressed in 
European clothes ; among them his eye especially rested 

* " We alone," writes Mr. H. Williams, " and our natives sit in 
the midst of all this commotion, without a single care or anxious 
feeling, though every tribe around is under arms, and ready for im- 
mediate destruction. The conduct of our natives is most pleasing, 
each at his own occupation during the day, and in the evening the 
greater part assemble, as usual, for spiritual instruction." 



136 



CONTB AST. 



on the quiet Pita, and his now subdued wife, on Tai- 
wunga, now as fearless in the service of God as he had 
been in that of Satan, # and on the Christian children, — 
the commencement of the "Maori Church, and the 
earnest, as he doubted not, of wide-spread future bless- 
ing. But Mr. Marsden shall tell his own tale. " The 
contrast," he writes, "between the east and west sides of 
the inner bay were very striking, though only two miles 
distant : the east shore was crowded with fighting men 
of different tribes, in a wild, savage state ; many of 
them nearly naked, and when exercising entirely so ; 
nothing was to be heard but the firing of muskets, and 
the din and confusion of a savage military camp ; some 
mourning the death of their friends, others suffering 
from their wounds, and not one whose mind was not 
involved in heathen darkness, without one ray of 
Divine knowledge. On the west side there was the 
pleasant sound of ' the church-going bell : ' the na- 
tives assembling together for Divine worship, clean, 
orderly, and decently dressed, most of them in Euro- 
pean clothing : all carried in their hands the Litany 
and greatest part of the Church service, and some 
hymns, printed in their own tongue; and their whole 
conduct and appearance reminded me of a well-regu- 
lated English country parish. Here might be seen, at 
one glance, the blessings of the Christian religion, 
and the miseries of heathenism, even in this present 
life ; but when we regard an eternal world, how in- 
finite is the difference !" 

* After his baptism, Taiwxmga boldly rebuked sin in the heathen 
round, while his own submission to the will of God was very strik- 
ing. A few months later, his children were taken ill; " I am an 
obstinate child," said the chief, " and God is whipping me." 



MR. MARSDEIT. 



137 



Mr. Marsden and his daughter left New Zealand 
again on the 27 th of May ; the time had been spent 
in visiting the different settlements ; in making ar- 
rangements for a new station at Waimate ; in assisting 
and counselling the Missionaries ; in conversations 
with the natives ; and in rejoicing at the bright pros- 
pects opening on the country. Often was he heard to 
exclaim, as it were to himself, ""What hath God 
wrought for His own name's sake!" "Well might he 
thus exclaim, when his thoughts recurred to that 
Christmas day in 1814, when he first stood up to de- 
clare the name of Jesus to a multitude of fierce, un- 
tamed savages, at the Pa of E^angi-houa ; or to that 
memorable night, passed amid spears and merys on the 
shore of Whangaroa. The true cross, of which the 
starry emblem then visited his wakeful eyes, was now 
firmly planted in the Maori heart, never, as he hoped 
and believed, to be uprooted thence. Slightly altering 
the words of the poet, 

" Had he not then for all his fears, 

The day of care, the anxious night, 
For all his sorrows, all his tears, 
An overpayment of delight ? " 



CHAPTER XII. 



SPIRIT OF INQUIRY AT THE SETTLEMENTS — BETSEY — NEW 
STATION FORMED AT WAIMATE. 

" Deliver him from going down to the pit : I have found a ran- 
som." — Job xxxiii. 24. 

The spirit of inquiry, which we spoke of in the pre- 
ceding chapter, proved to be no transient emotion ; it 
continued steadily to pervade, in a greater or less de- 
gree, most of the natives at the three different set- 
tlements. Sixteen adults had been baptized at Paihia 
before the close of the year 1830, and others had been 
received into the visible church at Keri-keri and Ean- 
gi-houa. This earnestness was not confined to the men 
alone ; many of the women and elder girls were 
awakened to a serious concern for their souls ; and Mr. 
Davis' eldest daughter devoted much of her time and 
energies to the assistance of those at Paihia. Every 
evening found this young, but devoted and loving, dis- 
ciple of her Lord gathering them around her for in- 
struction and prayer ; and a few particulars of one of 
her youthful pupils will serve as a specimen of the 
blessing vouchsafed to her labours. 

In 1825, a poor sickly, dull-looking slave girl had 
been brought to Mr. Davis by her father with a request 
that he would take her into his service. He did so ; 
and good food, kind treatment, and careful training 
soon so improved her that she became a valuable and 



BETSEY. 



139 



useful servant, though she never showed any great 
aptitude for learning. For some months before the 
baptism of Taiwunga and his companions, Betsey, as 
she was called, had appeared more thoughtful than 
usual, but whatever her friends might hope about her, 
she was silent, and they refrained from speaking to her 
on the subject. A few days, however, after the bap- 
tisms had taken place, she went to Miss Davis, and 
with great earnestness told her she could no longer 
delay, but must give herself to God at once ; at the 
same time requesting her to meet her fellow-servants 
and herself that evening to talk to them on the ex- 
ceeding love of Christ in dying for them. Miss 
Davis joyfully acceded to this request; and agreed to 
meet them twice a week in private, in addition to their 
receiving her more general evening instruction. Bet- 
sey rapidly grew in religious knowledge, as well as in 
grace ; and was baptized on April 11th, 1830, on one 
of those occasions at which Mr. Marsden was present. 
Not very long after her baptism, the poor girl was 
taken ill, and symptoms of consumption began to show 
themselves. She was quite aware of the nature of her 
complaint, and was able to look with an unshrinking 
eye to the termination of her earthly pilgrimage. Her 
affection for Miss Davis was unbounded ; and she was 
most anxious for the salvation of others, more espe- 
cially for that of her two companions in the house. 
Over one of these, who showed but little interest in 
spiritual things, she would often weep, and say, " Oh 
Tuari, Tuari, it will not be long before I am gone 
from you, and why do you not believe ? Do you think 
Grod will not listen to your prayers ? Yes, He will, 
for His love is great, it is not like the love of this 



140 



BETSEY. 



world that passeth away, it lasteth for ever." At 
other times she would urge her only to try the " good 
things of God, for I know," she would say, " if you go 
the right way to find Chejst, you will love Him too 
well to leave Him again ; He will hide your sins in 
His sepulchre, He will wash your heart in His blood ; 
and when you are washed from your sins, you will be 
happy, but not till then." To the other girl, Eama, 
who made a great profession of religion, she spoke 
differently ; urging her not to be satisfied with an empty 
show, but to seek for a real change of heart. 

As the poor girl's health continued to decline, her 
mind became more spiritual ; she could not endure any 
vain or trifling conversation ; and in a tone of gentle 
reproof would say, " These things will do you no good 
when Jesus comes to judgment. Satan is now cover- 
ing you with a thick darkness, but perhaps when I am 
gone, Jehovah will let the rays of His Sun dispel it 
from before your eyes, and then all will be light, and 
joy, and peace." The constant visits of Miss Davis to 
her sick-bed were very refreshing to her. " I am very 
hungry," she would say, " read with me and pray with 
me." One day she said, "I am not afraid to die, but 
read to me what St. Paul says about death." "How 
is it," asked Miss Davis, "that you are not afraid to 
die ? " " Because," she replied, " Cheist died for me ; 
He passed the lonely road before me, and He will be 
with me;" adding, "it is only now that I have seen 
the great love of Christ in giving Himself to die for 
our sins." Another day she was asked if she wished to 
recover. " ISTo," she answered, " for I shoidd sin again, 
and make God angry. When I think of ray former 
sins, it makes my heart very dark and sorrowful; but 



BETSEY. 



141 



then I pray, and God hides my sins from me, and puts 
His Spirit into my heart, and that makes it light again." 

As her end drew near, her sufferings increased, but 
her calm patience continued unmoved. " Your pain is 
great," said her kind friend to her. " Yes, my pain is 
great, but it is nothing to what my Saviour suffered. 
I feel happy ; Christ is waiting at the end of the road, 
I want to go." One day she fell asleep while Miss 
Davis was reading to her. When she awoke, she said, 
" Why did you let me go to sleep ? it is but a little 
while, and I shall hear you read no more." Seeing her 
young friend much affected, she added, " Marianne, do 
not grieve, we shall be separated but for a little while. 
Do not leave me ; come, sit down and talk to me about 
heaven." Her short bright course was now almost 
run ; and on September 17th she was evidently dying. 
Taking the hand of her to whom she owed so much, in 
a faint whisper she bade her farewell. " Farewell ! " an- 
swered Miss Davis, " you are going to Jesus." " Yes," 
replied she, "I am light, light." Soon after this she 
drew a deep sigh ; and the ransomed spirit of the Ma- 
ori slave girl had passed into the presence of Him who 
had purchased her with His own blood. 

It would seem as though the death of Betsey made 
an impression upon others. Two days after, the wife 
of Eawiri, (Taiwunga,) following the example of her 
husband, came forward to be baptized ; Rama too, the 
girl for whom she had been so anxious, became more 
earnest in religion, and a few months later followed her 
friend in death. Her end was also peace. 

The details of the work of Divine grace in the hearts 
of many of the natives at the three settlements about 
this time are very interesting, and prove, if proof were 



142 



WAKAEAE. 



needed, that whether the people of Gfoi) are gathered 
from the East or the West, the ]S"orth or the South, H it 
is the same God that worketk all in all." — They con- 
tinued earnestly to seek personal intercourse with 
the various Missionaries, to lay before them their 
doubts and difficulties, and to seek advice and direction. 
Sometimes they found they could more freely express 
themselves in writing, and a note frequently found its 
way to one or another of their instructors. The fol- 
lowing is the translation of one of these : — Brother 
of Mr. Williams, I think much of Jzsrs Cheist ; His 
love to my heart is very great ; I am a very bad man. 
My sins were lately very many, but they have been 
taken away by Jesus Cheist. His love does not dis- 
appear. The affection towards Him in my heart is 
very great. I cannot hide the affection of my heart. 
The joy of the Holy Spirit in my heart is very great. 
Because I have a great heart I write to you, although 
man * says, 6 Is it true indeed that Jesus Cheist will 
come to look at my heart ? ' I pray constantly to 
Him by night and by day ; when I go to sleep I pray 
to Him; in the morning I pray to Jehovah our Fa- 
ther. My heart is sore on account of the sacred words 
of Jestjs Cheist, which are suppressed by us. By- 
and-bye, in the evening, T will pay you a visit. This 
letter is written by me, Wakarae." 

The anxiety for the salvation of their countrymen 
was very great, both among the baptized f and the can- 

* Does he mean his own natural heart r 

f In the summer of 1831, the baptized natives at Paihia obtained 
permission to hold a weekly prayer-meeting among themselves, and 
one of the usual subjects of their prayers was that they might them- 
selves become Missionaries to their countrymen. 



WAIMATE. 



143 



didates for baptism, and either by themselves, or in 
company with one of the brethren, they frequently 
visited the suiTounding villages. But as yet the dew 
of the Holy Spirit had fallen only within the settle- 
ments, and all around was dry. 

We have before said that one of the subjects that 
occupied Mr. Marsden's mind during his visit to the 
Island in 1830 was, the formation of a new settlement ; 
and Wcdmate. the former residence of Hongi, was fixed 
upon, as the land appeared well fitted for agriculture, 
and its inland position removed it, in great measure, 
from the baneful influence of the European shipping. 
This part of the country too was less depopulated than 
most of the surrounding districts ;* for it was long since 
the fierce Ngapuis had suffered any invader to attack 
their territory, and Hongi' s wars had been carried on 
among distant tribes. 

A considerable quantity of land was purchased from 
the chiefs in a favourable situation, bounded on one 
side by a beautiful river, and intersected by two small 
streams. The Ngapuia were extremely pleased with 
the idea of having resident Missionaries among them ; 
for though they had frequently been visited from Keri- 
keri, yet these visits were necessarily irregular, and 
the people complained that the instructions they re- 
ceived were forgotten before they saw their teachers 
again. 

At a meeting held for the purpose of completing the 
purchase, an old chief rose and made a speech to the 
rest: " Be gentle," said he, " with the Missionaries, 
for they are gentle with you ; do not steal from them, 

* There were above 2000 natives in scattered villages within five 
miles of the settlement. 



144 



WAIMATE. 



for they do not steal from you ; let them sit in peace 
on the ground they have bought, and let us listen to 
their advice and come to their prayers. Though there 
are many of us, Missionaries and natives, let us be all 
one, all one, all one. This is all I have to say." 

Waimate was twelve miles inland from Keri-keri, 
and before it could be occupied as a permanent station, 
a cart road # must be cut through the intervening wood 
and jungle, and bridges must be built across the 
"Waitangi and another river. 

All however was set about with earnestness and ac- 
tivity ; and early in 1831, as soon as any tolerable 
shelter could be constructed, Mr. Clarke, Mr. R. Davis, 
and Mr. Hamlin proceeded to take up their abode there 
w T ith their families ; and were joined, in the course of 
the same year, by other labourers. 

* The cart was a subject of astonishment to the natives, who had 
never before seen any wheeled conveyance ; and a little later the 
plough excited almost as much admiration. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



THE WAIMATE — PROGRESS — RIPI — TUPAPA — MR. JAMIESON. 

" Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." 
Rev. xxii. 1/. 

What varied thoughts and feelings does the very- 
situation of the new settlement at the Waimate call 
forth ! Here it was that Hongi, the author of so much 
war and misery, lived and died ; iu yonder grove of tall 
"puriri" trees his body in its ornamented chest was 
preserved for months, till taken to its last abode. Not 
far off, as if nature would remove some of the evil of 
man's sin, a healing spring sends forth its pure and 
sparkling waters, and gives the name of " IVai-mate" 
or "water for the sick," to the whole surrounding dis- 
trict. 

Blessed be the God of all grace, He was now bring- 
ing heavenly, as well as earthly, peace to this distracted 
land ; and was opening a fountain of living waters, that 
should give life a#d health to souls even dead in tres- 
passes and sins. 

This new station was happily spared from many of 
the trials that had attended the three earlier ones. 
There were here no insulting threats, nor rude attacks, 
nor attempts at plunder. The counsel of the old chief 
had been attended to ; and the Missionaries were 
treated with kindness and respect. Mr. Clarke tells 
us, that though for the first two months he had been 

L 



146 



THE W AIM. ATE. 



unable to complete the fence about his house, and was 
for some time without a lock to secure his door, yet 
he did not lose an article of his property. And yet they 
were in the midst of the fierce tribe of ]Ngapuis ! 

The Missionaries had brought with them a good 
number of their own natives, to assist in cultivation, 
building, &c. ; and the settlement soon assumed the 
appearance of neatness and comfort. Schools # were 
established ; and before many months had passed, there 
were, including those they had brought with them, 
eighty-five men and boys, and fifty women and girls, 
under instruction. 

From the first Sunday of their residence, a flag had 
been regularly hoisted to mark the day of sacred rest ; 
many w^ere attracted by it from the country round, 
and so rapidly did the numbers increase, that before 
the Missionaries had been there three months, and long 
before their own houses w r ere properly habitable, they 
found it necessary to suspend all other work, and to 
erect a building that should serve as a chapel on the 
Sunday, and a school-room during the week. It was 
40 feet in length, and 20 in width, and was almost 
immediately filled with an attentive and well-conducted 
congregation. 

* In some of the distant villages the people by degrees established 
schools among themselves, the teacher being sometimes a lad who 
had formerly received instruction at one of the stations. Mr. Ham- 
lin mentions an instance of one at Ahu-ahu, a village he visited, 
whenever practicable, on Sundays. In this school were taught read- 
ing, writing, and the Catechisms that had been drawn up for the 
natives. The only assistance they had received was a present of five 
slates ; yet there was not one in December, 1834, who did not repeat 
the Catechisms correctly ; twenty could read pretty fluently, and the 
others were getting on, though they were not so forward. The writ- 
ing did not prosper so well, from want of copies. 



ran. 



147 



One of the first who responded to the Sabbath in- 
vitation of the hoisted flag was Itipi, the principal 
chief of Mawi, a village three or four miles from the 
Wainaate. Mr. Davis had become acquainted with 
this chief a year or two before, at Paihia; where one day 
seeing a party of strangers enter the settlement, he 
went up to them, as he was wont, hoping to find some 
opening for speaking to them on the concerns of their 
souls. They were talking with Taiwunga, who, though 
not then baptized, was deeply in earnest about spirit- 
ual things. The strangers were eagerly exhibiting 
some muskets they had just purchased from the ship- 
ping ; and Mr. Davis, while admiring them, and speak- 
ing of their lawful use in self-defence, took occasion to 
press upon their owners the immense importance of 
securing, not only their personal safety, but the salva- 
tion of their souls. This led to an animated conversa- 
tion, in which Taiwunga joined, and with great 
earnestness and ability refuted various objections 
brought forward by Eipi, who was one of the party. 
After this, the chief occasionally visited Paihia ; and 
when there, would always attend the means of grace ; 
but there was no appearance of any real impression 
being made upon his heart. About a year after this 
interview, in the autumn of 1830, a party of natives 
were sent to construct the new bridge over the Wai- 
tangi 9 that was to connect Waimate with the other 
stations. They happened to be of the same tribe as 
E.ipi; they were all steady, thoughtful young men ; and 
one of them, Aparahama,* who had not long been bap- 
tized, was very anxious for the souls of others as well 
as for his own. At his suggestion, these young men 
* Abraham, 



148 



EIPI. 



used at their leisure hours to visit Mawi, aud en- 
deavour to impart to the people there as much oi 
the instruction they had received as they were able 
to communicate. A son of Ripi's, who was at this 
time ill, was the special object of Aparahama' s in- 
terest and prayers ; he did not live long after, and Mr. 
Davis rejoiced to hear that, not only was there room 
for confident hope that he died a sincere believer in 
Christ, but that his father also was seeking to know 
eternal truth. # 

The establishment of the Mission at the "Waimate, 
early in 1831, was an inestimable blessing to this chief, 
as it enabled him regularly to attend the means of 
grace. Every Saturday found him at the house of his 
friend Aparahama, where the evening was passed in 
reading, conversation, and prayer; and after Divine 
worship on Sunday morning Eipi would return home, 
to communicate to his people the truths he had learnt. 
Sometimes he was accompanied by Mr. Davis, and at 
the chief's loud whistle, a hundred or more of the in- 
habitants would assemble, and listen attentively to the 
words of life. The newly awakened chief was in- 
defatigable among his own people, and many were 
prevailed on by him to have daily prayer in their own 
houses. But he was not content with his endeavours 
at Mawi; as his heart expanded, so did his efforts, 

* The way in which Mr. Davis came to the knowledge of this 
last circumstance affords too remarkable a proof of the altered state 
of feeling to be passed over in silence. One of his young workmen 
was a slave hired from Eipi ; and seeing him one day look more than 
usually happy, he asked him the reason. " Oh," cried the youth, 
who had himself been just baptized, "should I not rejoice in the 
prospect of the salvation of my master's soul ? " and then showed Mr. 
Davis a letter he had just received from Aparahama, speaking of the 
chief as being evidently in earnest about his salvation. See page 18. 



KAIKOHI. 



149 



and his next step was to visit Kaikohi, a district about 
ten miles from Waimate, where he had relations. He 
was kindly received, and his address was attentively 
listened to by Atua-haere,* the principal chief. " Come 
here," said he to him, "you are my child. It is long 
since you came to see me ; and now, having heard 
something from the white people that you think is 
good, you come to tell it me : this is very good, but 
as you know but little of it yourself, go back, and 
bring some one with you who understands these 
things better." Ripi repeated this to Mr. Davis, re- 
questing that Aparahama might accompany him on 
his next visit to Kaikohi; and, exclaiming, "Ah, I 
have been thoughtful about the things of God for these 
two years, ever since you spoke to me that evening at 
Paihia," repeated nearly all the conversation that 
had then taken p]ace ; so deeply had it sunk into his 
mind. 

It was a joyful sight to see these two disciples, the 
middle-aged and the young, going forth together, week 
after week, on this mission of love : the natives of 
Kaikohi could not resist their persuasions ; several of 
them established prayer in their families ; and as many 
of them as could come so far visited "Waimate on the 
Sabbath days. Eipi thankfully rejoiced, and little 
expected the disappointment that awaited him. 

The two friends had not long continued these Sun- 
day teachings, that were bringing light and joy into 
many a heart at Kaikohi, when they received a mes- 
sage from the chief, forbidding them to continue their 
visits. They were grieved and surprised at this un- 
looked-for prohibition, of which they knew not the 
* The walking god. 



150 



KAIKOHT. 



cause, till it afterwards appeared that Warepoaka of 
Rangi-houa, and some other chiefs, had sent to Atua- 
haere, desiring him to have nothing to do with Chris- 
tian teachers ; and the poor man had timidly yielded, 
against his will and against his conscience. 

It was strange that Warepoaka should have acted 
thus ; he had hitherto been an unswerving friend to the 
Missionaries ; # and only a year before, when it had 
been proposed that the Eangi-houa station should be 
removed two miles off to Tepuna, he vehemently ob- 
jected to the change. "What have we done," he 
exclaimed, " that you should leave us ? Have we rob- 
bed you ? Have we injured you ? If not, it will be a 
shame to desert us. But if you do, no one shall touch 
your houses, they shall stand empty and fall to pieces ; 
and when any Europeans ask us what they are, we will 
tell them, they were the houses of the Missionaries, 
who left us without cause, and in spite of our en- 
treaties." The proposed removal had in consequence 
been given up, and yet now Warepoaka was endeavour- 
ing to hinder the measures he had then been so anxious 
to promote ! Alas ! he had come under the influence 
of some ungodly Europeans, who had filled his mind 
with dark suspicions, and persuaded him and the other 
chiefs that the Christian natives were before long to 
be all shipped off for England, &nd there made slaves! 

The disappointment with regard to Kaikohi was not 
the only trial that Ripi met with in his onward course ; 
his bold, uncompromising conduct often brought upon 
him contempt and ridicule ; and at one time it would 
appear that he was in some personal danger from his 
refusal to join his neighbours in a war expedition to 
* Page 105. 



RIPI. 



151 



the south. Yet he continued stedfast and unmoved, 
and was evidently growing in grace. He had become 
watchful over himself, he had left off swearing, was 
conquering his naturally impetuous temper, had put 
away two of his wives, and was endeavouring to con- 
form his whole life to the Gospel standard. Mr. 
Davis spoke to him of baptism: "If I could write,' 1 
said the chief, " you should know all my thoughts ; but 
I am afraid to speak, I am afraid of boasting : I prayed 
to God to show me the sinfulness of my own heart, 
He has done so, and now I want to be delivered from 
all sin." Surely Bipi was a child of God ; the Mission- 
aries were persuaded that he was, and would not with- 
hold from him the seal of the covenant. He was 
baptized on Sept. 2nd, 1831 ; and from respect to that 
constant friend of the New Zealand Mission, Mr. 
Broughton, of Holborn, he received the name of 
Brought on, or, according to native pronunciation, 
Porotene. As yet he was the only native, unconnect- 
ed with the Mission stations, who had been baptized, 
except the first convert, Christian Banghi. 

We like to read of Porotene Bipi ; of his labouring 
among his own people ; of his travelling from place to 
place, in company or alone, to proclaim to friend or to 
former foe, the riches of the grace of God. He had 
already made a road from Mawi to the Waimate, that 
the Missionaries might visit him with less difficulty ; 
and he now set about another that should enable them 
to penetrate further into the country. 

And here we will quote from the account given of 
this Mission by the late lamented Colonel Jacob, of 
the Bombay Army, who visited New Zealand in 1833, 
and thus speaks of our energetic chief. "Beyond 



152 



EIPI. 



"Waimate, I fell in with a chief, named Bipi, who had 
lately been baptized ; he and his people were engaged 
in cutting a road through a dense and lofty forest. 
The ' good news ' of salvation by Cheist had reached 
the heart of this chief, and the hearts of many of his 
tribe ; they had felt its power, they had built them- 
selves a little church for morning and evening wor- 
ship ; and now we found them with their hatchets in 
their hands, cutting this road through the forest, and 
already advanced nearly two miles, in order that this 
same ' good news' might be carried to the tribe beyond, 
a tribe, moreover, at enmity with their own. 

" I was struck with the dignified appearance of this 
man ; his only garment was his native mat, but this 
did not obscure his manly form ; and I could but con- 
trast his present employment with his former pursuits 
in days of darkness and degradation." 

The people that Eipi was thus labouring to benefit, 
had seen the influence his words often had on those 
who listened to him, and they accused him of using 
enchantment. The chief agreed to meet them and ex- 
plain the matter. Armed with the word of G-od, he 
went ; he read to them many of the passages he had 
read to others ; and the result was that they declared 
his book of "enchantment" was one they desired to 
know more about ; and would not let him go till he 
had told them more of that great and glorious Gospel. 

Eipi's bright and useful course was, however, des- 
tined to be a short one. Writing on June 5th, 1838, 
Mr. Davis says, " Eipi appears to be at the point of 
death, it is very distressing to my weak mind ; he has 
for years been a comfort to me, and a blessing to his 
tribe. To us it would appear desirable that such a 



THE W ATM ATE. 



153 



man should live long for the sake of the cause of 
Christ ; but G od seeth not as man seeth." In a 
postscript Mr. Davis adds : " Eipi has escaped from 
this vale of tears, I trust to Be a gem in the Ke dee Bi- 
er's crown." 

While recounting the history of Eipi, we seem to 
have lost sight of the more general Missionary work at 
this station; and must now return to the period at 
which we left it, viz. 1831. At the settlement itself 
all was going on satisfactorily ; fresh families from time 
to time took up their abode round the Mission pre- 
mises ; the schools and congregations increased ; and 
the following extract from one of the settlers' letters 
will give an idea of a Sunday at the Waimate. " It 
would," wrote Mr. Clarke in 1834, "cheer the hearts 
of Christians in England, and perhaps shame those 
who only bear the name, to see a New Zealand Sabbath. 
Long ere the Morning Service begins, you see the 
natives collecting in little groups round the chapel, 
reading or listening to the word of Grod. Often the 
chapel is filled five minutes after the door is opened, 
and many are generally obliged to stand outside. The 
rest of the day corresponds to this ; all is order and 
silence, except that you may occasionally hear the voice 
of praise ascending from the little cottages, where per- 
haps two or three families have met together for the 
purpose." 

But Waimate was not more exempt than the other 
stations from the effects 

" Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe ; " 

and consumption, that great enemy of the Maori race, 



154 



HUKA. 



carried off some of the most promising of the converts. 
One of these was a young man of the name of Huka, 
who had accompanied Mr. Hamlin from Keri-keri ; 
and who, though far from intelligent in worldly things, 
had had his heart enlightened in those of eternity. 
" Shall I ever get to heaven P" said he one day to Mr. 
Hamlin, "my sins are so great." Mr. Hamlin laid 
before him the full sacrifice and perfect righteousness 
of Christ. " That is very sweet," he answered, " but 
if I were Christ's I should love Him more ; my pray- 
ing heart," he added, "is very great, I could pray all 
day ; but my loving heart is very small." Mr. Hamlin 
re-assured him, and bade him look to that heaven where 
his love for his Saviour would be perfected ; and on 
the second day Huka had entered into rest. 

Much, however, as the Missionaries mourned over 
the loss of so many of their people, they, and indeed 
the whole Mission, were called to experience a far 
heavier trial in the death of Mrs. Davis, in the year 
1837, after a few hours' illness ; and the loss of this 
excellent woman was the more keenly felt, as it was 
the first breach made by death in the Missionary band, 
since the first arrival in 1814. 

In their visits to the surrounding country, the 
Missionaries now began to reap the fruit of their 
former labours ; for several of the young men who had 
accompanied them from Keri-keri and Paihia were 
now competent to teach others, and rejoiced in being 
permitted, on Sundays or on week-days, either by 
themselves or in company with one of the brethren, to 
go from village to village proclaiming the glad tidings 
of a Saviour's love. Soon the Sabbath began to be 
almost universally observed in the places they visited ; 



INQUIRERS. 



155 



and the approach of the teacher was hailed with de- 
light. As soon as he came in sight, a suspended 
hatchet, or broken hoe, struck in imitation of a bell, 
gave notice of the service ; and a group of from 
ninety to two hundred natives had presently gathered 
round, to join in prayer and to listen to the word of 
God. 

Many were seriously and lastingly impressed; at 
Mawi, in particular, as we might have expected, the 
Missionaries could rejoice over several. One of these 
was an aged woman, an elder sister of Eawiri # of 
Paihia, who with trembling lip and tearful eye, one 
day said to Mr. Davis, " You tell me I must repent ; 
I do repent ; I confess my sins ; I have been a very 
wicked woman ; I have been a thief, a liar, an adul- 
teress ; I have been stubborn, noisy, and covetous: 
but I have done with it all ; all I now want is Christ. 
"When Eawiri was here some time ago, he asked me 
how my heart was, but I told him there was nothing- 
there : no it was not Eawiri made me feel ; it was not 
man, it was God." 

A brother of Eipi's was also among the most earnest 
of the inquirers. One day he called on Mr. Davis. 
"I am come to talk with you," said he, "I am not 
come to beg : I do not want the things of this life ; no, 
but I feel my great sins, I want to confess them to 
you, that they may not gnaw as a worm in my breast." 
Mr. Davis told him to whom alone he must confess his 
sins with any prospect of real benefit; and pointed 
out to him, as simply as he could, the Gospel plan of 
salvation; and the poor fellow left him, apparently 
much relieved, 

* Taiwunga, 



loo 



TUPAPA. 



It was about tlie same time that Mr. Davis met 
with an unexpected and very encouraging case. It 
was in November, 1834, that on one of his usual Sun- 
day visits to Mam he was requested to go to see a 
poor sick man. Tupapa was an old chief, and his beard 
was grey ; his face, which was elaborately tattooed, had 
been a remarkably fine one, but it now seemed fixed 
in death. Mr. Davis knelt over him in deep sorrow 
of heart. Alas ! alas ! thought he, what can be done 
for him now ? He spoke to him, and the dying man 
tried to answer, but his pale blue lips refused to articu- 
late a single word ; he tried again, and at length suc- 
ceeded. As he began to speak, his countenance bright- 
ened, he raised his feeble arm, and letting it fall upon 
his breast, exclaimed, " My mind is fixed on Christ as 
my Saviour." " How long have you been seeking 
Christ ?" " Since I first heard of Him," he replied ; 
" Christ is in my heart, and my sonl is joyful." Mr. 
Davis urged him to keep fast hold of Christ, and to 
beware of the tempter. " I have no fear," he answer- 
ed, "for Christ is with me." After Mr. Davis had 
read part of John xiv. to him, and joined in prayer, 
the dying man told him how much he blessed God for 
sending his messengers to him with the news of salva- 
tion. He seemed to long to depart. " Oh," said he, 
" I shall die to-day ; this is the sacred day." 

Mr. Davis' feelings may be imagined. " I at first," 
he writes, " looked on him as a poor ignorant, dying 
savage ; but oh ! the infinite riches of sovereign grace ! 
I was kneeling over one of God's dear children, who 
seemed resting firmly on His omnipotent arm, even in 
the midst of the river of death. His views of the 
Saviour were clear, his evidence bright. Plis counten- 



KAIKOHI. 



157 



ance, already apparently settled in death, beamed with 
lively joy ; the savour of the name of J esus seemed, as 
it were, to bring him back for a few minutes into life, 
that he might leave his dying testimony behind him as 
to the power of religion to support the soul in death." 

And now how was it faring all this time with Kai- 
kohi ? Were the hopes of Eipi and Aparahama to be 
blighted ? was the seed they had sown there to wither 
and come to nought ? Far from it ; but 

"God doth, not need 
Either man's work, or His own gifts ; " 

and He carries out His purposes of mercy in His own 
way, and sometimes by unexpected means. 

When Eipi and Aparahama were forbidden to visit 
Kaikohi, there was no prohibition to prevent the peo- 
ple of the village from going to the "Waimate ; and not 
fewer than twenty of the young men, who had been 
interested in the Gospel message, now became regular 
weekly attendants at the public worship and the 
adult school at the settlement ; and when they return- 
ed to their homes, communicated to others what they 
had learnt. A year had passed away since the two 
friends had ceased their visits ; the Atua-haere had 
himself become impressed ; and one day Mr. Davis 
was agreeably surprised by a visit from him, accom- 
panied by two of these same young men. He was 
very earnest in his inquiries as to his own salvation ; 
and as his companions listened to the conversation, 
their hearts glowed with thankfulness, and their coun- 
tenances, as we are told, w r ere lighted up with a joy 
such as angels feel at the conversion of a sinner. 

The Sunday services at Kaikohi were now resiuned ; 



158 



KAIKOHI. 



a raupo chapel was built ; and tlie following is an in- 
teresting description of one of these Sabbath mornings. 
" Feb. 9, 1834. Held three services at three native 
villages. The first was at Kaikohi, where I had slept. 
Here the Sabbath, as far as outward observance goes, 
is strictly kept. The silence and stillness were quite 
imposing ; all food had been previously prepared, and 
all work was laid aside. It was one of those lovely 
mornings almost peculiar to New Zealand; the heat 
of summer had been tempered by a gentle shower ; all 
nature seemed rejoicing ; the grasshoppers were chirp- 
ing merrily ; and the natives, in little groups, were 
reading to each other the wonderful works of GrOD, or, 
in their rude way, were attempting to sing His praises. 
At the time of service, one hundred and twenty-nine 
assembled in the rough building they call their chapel." 

In October, 1835, Atua-haere, and thirty of his 
people, were admitted by Mr. W. Williams into Christ's 
visible church, by baptism ; and thus Bipi, before his 
death, had the joy of being united to his old friend by 
better bonds than those of earthly relationship. 

But the interesting details of the work of God at 
Waimate multiply so fast upon us, that we must pass 
very lightly over the intervening period, up to the year 
1840, when, as we have before said, the connected his- 
tory of the Mission is to cease. "We must then only 
speak of the work as still progressing ; the number 
of inquirers still increasing ; # distant villages hear- 
ing of some strange thing, and sending to inquire 

* Mr. Davis at one time speaks of receiving ninety inquirers in 
one day ; on another he had a hundred and sixty-one ; and Mr. 
Clarke says that occasionally his own house was actually " beset" 
with people before day-break. 



THE WAIMATE IX 1825. 



159 



what it was ;* the baptized walking consistently ; many 
gathering round the table of their Lord ; and some 
Sufficiently established to be sent to distant tribes with 
the Grospel message. f 

We hardly like to turn from these peaceful, hopeful 
scenes ; and to ask our readers, before we carry them 
forward to 1840, to go back with us fifteen years, to 
the time when the very spot on which the settlement 
now stood was the abode of misery and horror ; yet 
there are two scenes of which we happen to have so 
graphic a description, and the contrast between which 
has so forcibly impressed our own mind, that we shall 
conclude this chapter with them. 

Upon Hongi's return from the war with Kaiparo, 
of which we have spoken before, J and in which his fa- 
vourite son had been slain, he sent a message to the 
Missionaries at Keri-keri, requesting them to come and 
see him ; and Mr. Kemp and Mr. Clarke immediately 
repaired to Waimate. The account of their visit we 
give in Mr. Clarke's own words. " As we drew near 
to the valley in which the natives were encamped, we 
heard doleful lamentations ; and when we came in 
sight, soon discovered they were mourning for Hongi's 
son, and other chiefs, killed at Kaiparo, whose bodies 
they had brought, that the bones might be deposited in 
the family sepulchres. We were conducted to a little 
eminence, where Hongi sat in sad silence, near a small 

* For example, parties came more than once for this purpose 
from Kaiparo, sixty miles off ; the scene, it may be remembered, of 
one of Hongi's latest and most sanguinary expeditions. 

f Several of those we shall read of in the 17th Chapter, as be- 
ing sent to the East Cape, were from this district ; one was from 
Mawi. 

| Page 101. 



1G0 



THE WAIMATE IN 1825. 



stage on which the bones of his son were to be hereafter 
deposited. We were received by him with every mark 
of affection and respect ; and though he w r as himself 
tapued, and dared not touch food with his own hands, 
he offered some to us, and bade us sit down near him. 
We remained silent a long time, according to native 
custom, and indeed the scenes around us were such as 
to affect any man, especially one who cared for souls. 
Wherever we turned our eyes, all was affecting ; there 
were at least six hundred savages returned fijom an 
expedition that had launched many of their country- 
men into eternity, and of which the object was to ex- 
terminate a whole tribe, from no other motive than the 
love of conquest. Many of these were grieving for the 
loss of friends ; many Avere sick and even dying from 
the effects of their inhuman repasts skice the day of 
battle ; and all w r ere without God. On our right, a 
number of the friends of the deceased were sitting, 
crying bitterly, wTinging their hands and cutting their 
faces, arms, and necks till the blood ran down to the 
ground ; words cannot express the apparent agony of 
their minds ; while they still more excited their own 
and others' feelings, by reciting the deeds of valour of 
the deceased. Behind us lay a disconsolate young 
widow, probably meditating self-destruction ; beside 
us was sitting an aged and affectionate parent, feeling 
W T hat none but a tender parent can feel at the loss of 
a most beloved child, and in a way that none but help- 
less, hopeless heathens know. Below us, in the valley, 
was a disgusting scene ; the people in the camp were 
preparing for a great feast ; children from five to ten 
years old were imitating in §port the cruelties of the 
late battle, while a number of heads of enemies, stuck 



THE W AIM ATE IN 1840. 



161 



on poles, adorned the frightful spot. We spent three 
hours with the mourners, condoling with them, and 
talking to them on the horrors of war, — alas ! without 
effect." 

This was in July, 1825. Let us pass over a few 
years, and in 1840 let us visit the same spot again, in 
company with Mr. Jamieson, a gentleman who, having 
occasion to come to New Zealand on some public busi- 
ness, took the opportunity of judging for himself how 
far the evil reports he had heard in JSTew South "Wales 
of the Missionary stations were true or false. 

After giving a general description of the settle- 
ment,* — the neat wooden houses, each with its garden 
and its meadow, its fruits and flowers ; the fences 
covered with roses and many-coloured climbers ; the 
mill ; the church, with its neat white spire rising among 
trees and corn-fields ; and the large scattered native 
village — Mr. Jamieson thus proceeds : " Having risen 
early on the following morning, I set out to walk 
through the place : as the sun rose over the eastern 
ridges, the mists, that during the night had settled 
on the village, disappeared. The grassy meadows 
glittered with dew, the workmen had not yet gone 
forth to their daily labour, and the scene was alto- 
gether one of calmness, peace, and security. I had 
fallen into a train of thought connected with other 
times and other scenes, w r hen I was aroused by a low 
and solemn sound, which, after advancing a little 
further, I found to proceed from a native hut. The 
inmates were singing their morning hymn ; and as I 

* The station was at this time in charge of the Rev. R. Taylor, 
Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Davis ; and the printing press was under 
Mr. "Wade and Mr. Colenso. 



162 



MR. JAMIESON. 



proceeded through the village, I heard the same de- 
votional exercises in almost every direction. Nor does 
it appear that this was merely the observance of an 
outward ceremony, but that the voice of praise uttered 
by these half- enlightened New Zealanders was really 
expressive of a heart-felt sense of gratitude and suppli- 
cation to the Great Atua who had shed upon them the 
light of another day. And I subsequently ascertained, 
in my further travels through the country, that there 
is scarcely a village, even at a distance from any Mis- 
sionary settlement, whose inhabitants fail to perform 
their morning and evening devotions." 

This and other similar visits enabled the ingenuous 
mind of Mr. J amieson to estimate at their true value, 
and to trace to their real source, the calumnies with 
which at this time the Missionaries and their w r ork 
were assailed. Were it needful, we could quote from 
other pages of his book, but the following passage will 
suffice. Referring again to "Waimate he says, " It was 
not without emotion that I beheld this focus of civil- 
ization in the heart of New Zealand. Its very exist- 
ence spoke strongly in favour of the native charac- 
ter ; here was no fear, distrust, or animosity ; but, on 
the contrary, the most convincing proofs of the ami- 
cable intercourse that had for years subsisted between 
the natives and the Missionaries. Between those who 
receive the advantages of instruction, and those who 
confer that blessing, it is reasonable to look for a feel- 
ing of gratitude on the one hand, and a kind of pater- 
nal interest on the other ; and such, after an extensive 
practical observation among the New Zealanders, ap- 
peared to me to be the kind of relationship subsisting 
between them and the Missionaries, wherever the 



MB. JAMIE SON. 



1G3 



native character has not been deteriorated by the 
temptations to which they are too often exposed by 
European settlers." 

Of these European settlers we shall have more to 
say in a future page. 



M 9 



CHAPTER XIV. 



STATIONS IN THE BAY OF ISLANDS, FROM 1830 TO 1840. 

" The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make 
peace." — James iii. 18. 

"We must now go back to the Bay of Islands, and 
trace the progress of events in the three settlements 
upon its shores, from the year 1830, when we last 
spoke of them, up to the period of our taking leave of 
Waimate, viz. 1840. 

Since the death of Hongi, the love of war in this 
part of the country had appeared to be gradually dying 
away ; but the sad affair at Kororarika, in 1830,* had 
revived it ; nor had it yet been again entirely extin- 
guished. A spirit of revenge still burnt in the breasts of 
those chiefs who had found themselves the weakest; and, 
afraid to make war on their more powerful neighbours, 
they resolved to quench their thirst for vengeance, by 
an unjustifiable attack on the tribes towards the south. 
Even Tohi-tapu and Titore, lately so desirous for peace, 
were induced to join the fight. The Missionaries, find- 
ing it impossible to prevent this expedition, took the 
bold step of accompanying it, in the hope of at least 
mitigating the horrors of the war; and in January, 
1832, Mr. H. "Williams, Mr. Kemp, and Mr. Fairburn 
embarked in the " Karere " for the Bay of Plenty. 
Fearlessly did the little vessel pursue her way, sur- 
* Page 134. 



BAT OP ISLANDS. 



165 



rounded by a fleet of a hundred war-canoes, each one 
filled with well-armed and angry natives ; and as the 
light of heaven caught her swelling sails, we might 
have fancied we could see inscribed upon them, "Blessed 
are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God." 

The brethren remained for several weeks at Tau- 
ranga, softening, though not subduing, the fury of the 
combatants ; and the following year, accompanied by 
Mr. Chapman, Mr. "Williams again proceeded to the 
scene of strife, where, though, as before, they failed in 
their endeavours at reconciliation, they won the esteem 
and affection of many of the southern chiefs. 

After some months of uncertain success, the chiefs 
of the Bay returned disappointed and discontented ; * 
the presence of the Missionaries had, they said, made 
their arms so weak that they could not fire straight. 

And now the notes of war were once more hushed 
along the shores of this favoured Bay ; the war-dance 
and the yell of triumph were scarcely known, and the 
word of God would, humanly speaking, have had free 
course, and have prevailed, had not serious hindrances 
arisen from other sources ; but as we shall have occa- 
sion to refer more particularly to these hereafter, we 
shall pass them over for the present, and proceed to 
take a cursory view of the settlements themselves. 

All were still progressing ; the number of converts 
still increased ; and the baptized, with few exceptions, 
walked consistently, as far as their light and know- 
ledge led them. Yet we must ever bear in mind that 

* Human heads were again seen in the neighbourhood of Paihia, 
but no scenes of cannibalism are known to haye taken place. 



166 



EARLY DAYS. 



it was still but early days with these native believers ; 
that even those who were most sincere and earnest, 
and whose hearts were really given to Grod, were many 
of them but babes in Christ, and required much anxi- 
ous watching, and prayer, and guidance, and reproof. 
To quote the words of one of the brethren, " When a 
native begins to think about his soul, and to seek sal- 
vation in Jesus, he finds himself ignorant of every 
good thing, and knows not how to proceed. He does 
not cast off his ignorance and sin in a day, and be- 
come at once an enlightened and civilized Christian. 
If even in civilized life, where a man has been brought 
up under the sound of the gospel, and under the laws 
of his country, that forbid him to steal, to murder, 
&c. — if even in this case it requires a course of time 
before an inquirer can be brought to a clear know- 
ledge and an established faith and hope in Christ, 
what must be the case of a New Zealander who has 
been from his childhood trained to the commission oi 
every sin ? Even when brought to a little knowledge 
of Divine things, their ideas of truth, honesty, &c, 
for a long time continue very low." 

Quiet progress does not afford much of stirring in- 
cident, and yet there are points in each of the three 
settlements in the Bay, that well deserve a separate 
notice. Reversing the order of their first establish- 
ment, we will begin with 

PAIHIA. 

And we cannot present a more graphic picture of 
this station, than by again referring to Colonel Jacob. 
" I landed," he says, " late on Saturday evening, Feb- 
ruary 9th, 1833, at Paihia. An aged chief, surrounded 



PAIHIA. 



167 



by his tribe, was seated on the shore, having rowed 
from Whangaroa, a distance of some forty miles, on 
purpose to be present at the Mission services on the 
Sunday. The next morning, judge of what my feel- 
ings were, when in this savage land, once resounding 
with the cry of human suffering, I was awakened by 
the early church bell, calling me to one of the most 
interesting, most solemn services that can be imagined. 
At eight o'clock the church was filled to overflowing, 
the men on one side, and the women on the other ; — ■ 
the men carrying their children on their backs in New 
Zealand style ; — and numbers besides, unable to find 
admission, crowded the windows and the doors. Yet all 
was quietude and order, and you might have heard 
a pin drop whilst the preacher was addressing them. 
The service was commenced by that beautiful hymn of 
Kelly's translated into Maori, but with Kelly's tune ; 
and the organ was almost drowned by the harmonious 
voices of the congregation as they sang, 

* From Egypt lately come, 

Where death and darkness reign, 
We seek our new, our better home, 

Where we our rest shall gain : 
Hallelujah ? we are on our way to God. 

We hope to join the throng, 

Whose pleasures we shall share, 
And sing the everlasting song 

With all the ransomed there : 
Hallelujah ! we are on our way to God.' 

I could scarcely repress my feelings while I listened 
to these once savage cannibals now uniting in the 
praises of Grod. 

" Between the services I accompanied Mr. Brown 



168 



TOHi-TArr. 



to Kororarika, where a congregation of about seventy 
soon assembled. Here also I was astonished to see 
these apparently savage natives take out their books 
from under their mats, and turn to the various parts 
of the service, singing, and joining in the responses 
with much solemnity and propriety." 

The Missionary work at Paihia continued to in- 
crease ; and sometimes the brethren scarcely found 
time for anything but conversation with inquirers. 
The natives in several places, even at Kororarika, estab- 
lished schools of their own ; and you might not un- 
frequently see a chief sitting under a tree and reading 
the Word of Grod, or observe a copy of the New Tes- 
tament half hidden in his mat. 

One event that occurred during this time was the 
occasion of much sorrow to our friends ; it was the 
death of Tohi-tapu. We have often mentioned this 
chief, and related how, after being the first and 
fiercest of the assailants of the Missionaries at Paihia, 
he had become their stedfast friend ; and how often, 
laying aside his former love for war, he had striven to 
reconcile contending parties. The influence that 
Mr. H. Williams had over him was quite extraordi- 
nary. At his persuasion he would give up a favourite 
project, or rescue captives from a chief who had un- 
lawfully detained them ; and there is one instance so 
curious, and so painfully characteristic, that we must 
insert it. It was in March, 1828, that Tohi-tapu one 
day came to Mr. Williams much excited, and in great 
distress of mind. One of his wives had misconducted 
herself, and proved herself unworthy of his affection. 
The poor man was miserable, he talked of killing him- 
self, for he could not eat, and was sure he should be 



TOHI-TAPU. 



169 



starved. In a reproachful tone, he said, that had it 
not been for the Missionaries, all would now be 
well, for he should hare killed and eaten a slave, and 
his heart would have beeu at ease. Mr. Williams 
tried to soothe him, and after a time Tohi-tapu depart- 
ed, apparently much quieted. But the next morning 
he rushed in again, while the family were at breakfast, 
in still greater agitation than on the preceding day, 
exclaiming he should die of hunger. Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
liams, knowing his fondness for English food, pressed 
him to partake of theirs ; but he refused, and brand- 
ishing a hatchet he carried in his hand, and with 
which he had, he said, on previous occasions sent six- 
teen persons to Eeinga, # declared that nothing should 
stop him from satisfying his hunger by again killing 
and eating some one. Mr. Williams made him sit 
down by him, spoke plainly to him of the wickedness of 
such an act ; told him that Satan was trying to get 
him for himself ; • till at last the conquered chief threw 
his hatchet from him, exclaiming he would never again 
use it for such a purpose. And we believe he kept his 
word. Poor Tohi-tapu ! there was much in him that 
was hopeful ; he kept the Sabbath day, he regularly 
attended the means of grace, he had learned to control 
his fiery passions, and when the natives of Kororarika 
repeatedly urged him to become their chief, offered him 
pecuniary advantages, and promised to send him mus- 
kets, he steadily refused to leave the neighbourhood of 
the Missionaries. He told them he cared not for mus- 
kets, and if they sent him any he should make them 
into rafters for his house. Sometimes he even fancied 

* Reinga, a place of departed spirits. 



170 



TORI-TAP U. 



himself a Christian, but those who knew him better 
than he knew himself, could trace no evidence of a 
work of grace in him. 

At the affray at Kororarika in 1830,* he had been 
one of the most active fellow- workers with Mr. Mars- 
den in promoting peace ; but soon after, he fell under 
the influence of the ungodly traders at Kororarika, 
who embittered his mind against the Missionaries, and 
he began to treat even Mr. H. "Williams with rudeness 
and neglect. He joined the war expedition of 1832 
and 1833, against Tauranga,f and was after his return 
taken seriously ill. The brethren frequently visited 
him, and endeavoured to make some impression on his 
heart, but in vain, and Tohi-tapu died, as he had lived, 
a heathen ! 

Thanks be to GrOD, many a bright picture at Paihia 
might be put in contrast with poor Tohi-tapu' s life and 
death ; but we shall select an instance from another 
station. 

KEHI-KERI. 

Here, as elsewhere, consumption, that bane of the 
Maori race, had found many victims. One of these 
w r as Anne Waiapu, a young woman of much promise. 
When quite a little girl, she had, at her own request, 
been taken into the household of Mr. Kemp, where 
she lived for several years, as a faithful, affectionate, 
and industrious servant. But her attachment to her 
master's family did not incline her towards their re- 
ligion, and she continued to cling with such " frightful 
eagerness" to her native superstitions, that it seemed 



See page 134. 



f See page 164. 



W/TAPTJ. 



171 



as though, all the Christian instruction she received 
Would only prove to her a savour of death. In 1828 she 
married a very steady young man named Waiapii ; and 
her conduct as a wife and mother was very exemplary, 
though neither she nor her husband gave any evidence 
of a change of heart. In 1830, Waiapu was enticed 
to join in the fighting at Kororarika, and was merci- 
fully preserved in safety. His conscience was struck 
with the guilt of engaging in this unholy strife, and 
with the goodness of God in sparing him ; and he 
could find neither rest nor peace, till, after some time, 
it pleased God to reveal to him His love in Christ 
Jesus. It now appeared that his wife's mind had for a 
good while been gradually undergoing the same trans- 
formation ; and before long they both became candidates 
for baptism. Soon after their admission to the holy or- 
dinance, Anne showed symptoms of consumption ; and 
though at first she felt confident of her recovery, her 
illness led her to a stricter self-examination, and a 
deeper abasement before God and man ; and faithful 
as she had been in her earthly service, she was now 
distressed at her many shortcomings, ashamed, as she 
said, that she had done so little for her kind mistress, 
from whom she had received so much. As the con- 
viction of the real state of her health broke in upon 
her mind, she still remained calm and peaceful, only 
becoming more earnest in her conversation and in her 
prayers. The eternal welfare of her husband and chil- 
dren lay very much upon her heart. " James," she 
would say with great earnestness, " I think now I shall 
die, do not keep my children from going to heaven ; 
lead them to God, the great and the good." As her 



172 



AiritE waiapu. 



illness increased, her mouth was filled with praise. 
"Ah, my mother," she said one day to Mrs; Kemp, 
who was tenderly soothing her pain, " Ah, good-bye, I 
am going to Jesus, who greatly loves me : I shall see 
Him now. I hare seen Him with my heart, and I 
love Him with my heart ; it is not my lips only that 
"believe in Him." She was very anxious to partake of 
the Loed's supper. " Tell me," said she to the Mis- 
sionary, " may I be carried to the house of prayer the 
next Loed's day, and will you let James and me eat 
of the bread and drink of the cup of which our Lord 
said, 'Do this in remembrance of me?'" Her re- 
quest was complied with, and the next Sunday she was 
taken in a litter into the house of God, and laid down 
near the Communion table. It was a very affecting 
service ; no New Zealander had yet been admitted to 
the table of the Loed ; and here was the first native 
communicant eating the bread and drinking the cup, 
just before she was passing into the presence of Him 
who had given His body and shed His blood for her. 
Her end was now fast approaching ; and as it drew 
more near, her love for her husband and children be- 
came more intense, and her joy and faith more bright. 
"Jesus Cheist is mine, and I am Jesus Chetst's," 
she one day exclaimed ; "I know Him now, I know 
Him now, He is come here," laying her hand upon 
her heart, " and He will not go away any more." Do 
you not wish to recover ? she was asked. " "What ! " 
she answered, " and Jesus the Saviour to be sometimes 
with me, and sometimes not ; and I sometimes thinking 
evil, and sometimes thinking good ! ]S"o, no, Mrs. Kemp 
will be a better mother to my children than I should be ; 



KEEI -K£BI. 



173 



I ay ill go." She had become insensible for several days ; 
but recovering her senses for a short time before her 
death, she called her children to her, and commending 
them to her God and Saviour, wept over them and de- 
livered them to her sorrowing husband. " Oh my hus- 
band ! " cried she, "but I have two husbands, Jesus 
is one. Poor James, poor James, my husband in 
heaven calls me and I must leave you. Will you come 
too ? Yes, and we shall be happy, happy, happy." 
The scene was very affecting ; the dying woman's head 
rested on Mary Taua, who had been baptized with her, 
and who in health and in sickness had been her con- 
stant companion and friend. At her feet sat her dis- 
consolate husband, soothing and weeping over his 
infant children ; by her side was her widowed, and 
soon to become her childless, father, his cheek resting 
upon hers ; while all the natives round were in tears 
for the loss of one they so much loved. 

Colonel Jacob visited also the settlement at Keri- 
keri, with the same pleasure and satisfaction he had 
experienced at Paihia. " In the room in which I 
slept/' he says, •'marks of window bars were still visi- 
ble. All now was quiet, but only a few years before 
all had been violence and plunder. The inmates had 
not unfrequently been put in fear of their lives ; and 
the ovens, in which human captives had not long before 
been cooked and eaten, were still visible from my win- 
dow. How changed was the station of Keri-keri ! At 
nine o'clock at night resounded the voice of prayer 
and the hymn of praise from many a Xew Zealander's 
hut around me ; and this family worship was general 
through the settlement, in addition to the well-attended 
daily morning and evening services in the station 



171- 



KERl-KEBI. 



church. I do not say that all this community were 
spiritually enlightened, but very many were, and very 
many were devout communicants ; and all desired to 
know and feel more deeply the influence of that gospel 
which had done so much for those around them. 

" Numbers came here to learn to read and write, 
and here they laid aside their antipathies and border 
quarrels. Some w r ho had long been separated by blood- 
feuds were here to be seen in the same class, learning 
together as friends ; and when able to read, they not 
unfrequeiitly departed taking with them books to in- 
struct their friends at home. In this way many in- 
stances have occurred in which the public services of 
the church have been held, and the Sabbath day kept 
holy, only in consequence of these instructions ; and 
thus a way has been prepared for the Missionary of 
Christ." 

Since the death of Hongi, the outward circum- 
stances of Keri-keri had been much changed. Bands 
of fighting men no longer gathered round to fill the 
Missionaries' hearts with anxiet}^ and alarm ; but then 
they had lost these opportunities of speaking a word 
in season ; and as nearly all the neighbouring population 
had migrated to other places, the brethren had time to 
spare from the instruction of their own natives, to 
visit those in distant districts. 

Some of the most encouraging of these visits w r ere 
paid to Whangaroa Bay, where a spirit of inquiry had 
been awakened, and where the shores, that had wit- 
nessed the massacre of the Boyd, and the flames of the 
AVesleyan settlement,* w r ere now often heard to re- 



* Page 103. 



WHA^GAKOA. 



175 



sound with prayer and praise. The means that God 
used to awaken this spirit are worth recording. 

Several years before, some lads from "Whangaroa had 
been in the school at Keri-keri ; and three or four of 
these, who were the least promising, after a while grew 
restless, and returned to their own friends and former 
ways. For a long time, the instruction they had re- 
ceived lay, as it were, dead within their hearts, till 
Porotene Hipi, who was related to some of the chiefs, 
and who, as we have seen, left no means untried to 
win souls to the Saviour whom he loved, paid a visit to 
these villages, and urged his friends to attend to the 
things of eternity. The lads were roused, and, re- 
calling what they had learnt, endeavoured to com- 
municate it to others. A general desire for instruc- 
tion was kindled; Tupe, a chief of some distinction, 
built a commodious chapel, and, together with a son of 
Hongi's, to whom had been given a better spirit than 
his father's, was urgent with the Missionaries of Keri- 
keri to come and settle there. Besides the many ap- 
plications by word of mouth, Hongi wrote the follow- 
ing letter to Mr. Kemp. " Mr. Kemp, this is my say- 
ing to you, I am sick for you to be a father to me. I 
am very sick for a white man to preach to me ; I will 
never cease contending with you. I am very good for 
you, Mr. Kemp, to be a father to me, and to Eewa- 
Rewa, and to Tupe. This is all my speech. By 
Hongi." "Nothing good will stick by us," wrote 
another chief, " because there is no one to take care of 
us, there is no one to take care of us. Come here, 
and be a father to us. What shall we do that is good, 
if we have none to take care of us?" 



176 



RANGI-HOUA. 



These earnest entreaties were complied with, as 
soon as circumstances permitted, and in 1839, Mr. 
Shepherd took up his permanent abode at Whangaroa. 
Several of the chiefs had already been baptized, among 
whom Tupe is especially noticed, as " a Christian in- 
deed." 

RANGI-HOUA. 

This, the earliest of all the stations, and which was, 
as will be remembered, on the northern shore of the 
Bay, continued under the charge of Mr. King, whose 
actual residence was however removed to Tepuna, a 
village about two miles distant. Here he laboured, as 
he ever had done, diligently and anxiously in his Mas- 
ter's service, and here he had the comfort of seeing a 
gradual and steady improvement. Some of his baptized 
young men became teachers of others, and went into 
the villages round to offer to their heathen neighbours 
the salvation in which they were themselves rejoicing. 
"Warepoaka also had emancipated himself from the in- 
fluence of evil-minded Europeans, and not only return- 
ed to his early friendliness, but rejoiced the heart of 
Mr. King by his reception of Christianity; and died, 
as there was every reason to hope, a real believer in 
Christ Jesus. 

Mr. King was sometimes assisted by some of the 
other brethren ; and on one occasion, Mr. Brown 
accidentally met with a sort of meditation written in 
the blank leaf of a book belonging to one of the lads, 
a translation of which will interest our readers. " Oh 
Jesus," it begins, " we cannot perfectly believe in Thee. 
Bound by the evil spirit, he will not let our hearts go, 



EA1S G [-I10UA. 



177 



lest we believe in Thee, O Christ ! lest we also be 
saved by Thee, O Jesus, Thou Son of G-od ! O Jesus, 
bow great is thy love to us ! Thou earnest down from 
heaven, when Thou didst understand the anger of Thy 
Father to all mankind. They were going to the place 
of torment, they were not going to Him. Thou saidst, 
I go to the natural world to be slain as a payment for 
this sin. I will purchase them with my blood " 



CHAPTER XV. 



KAITAIA — HINDRANCES — NGAKUKI — ROMISH BISHOP — EISHOP OF 
AUSTRALIA MR. MARSDEN'S LAST VISIT. 

" His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." 

Matt. xiii. 25. 

KAITAIA. 

Akd now, turning from the Bay of Islands and pur- 
suing our course across the Island, a few miles before 
we reach the western coast we shall come to Kaitaia, 
the fifth and last formed of the northern stations. 
Mr. ~W. "Williams and some of his brethren had been 
led, by the urgent solicitations that reached them from 
various quarters, to make a tour towards the North 
Cape, to ascertain the facilities for the establishment 
of a new station, and to choose the most eligible spot. 
They fixed on Kaitaia, among the tribe of the Earewas, 
forty miles north-west of "Waimate ; here, in March, 
1834, Mr. Puckey and Mr. J. Matthews, each of whom 
had married a daughter of Mr. Davis's, took up their 
abode ; and it was not long before here also the na- 
tural and moral desert began to blossom as the rose. 
"We must pass lightly over the early events of this 
station, the building and the planting, the readiness 
with which the natives erected a raupo chapel, the 
eagerness with which they cut roads through the woods, 
and threw bridges over the streams, to enable the Mis- 
sionaries to move freely from one village to another. 



KAITAIA. 179 

The people came from six and even eight miles' distance 
for worship and instruction ; and it was soon necessary 
to erect a larger building for the purpose. So many 
candidates came forward for baptism, that there seemed 
some danger lest the new religion sliould become 
fashionable ; and the examinations were conducted 
with increasing care and strictness. And yet, with all 
this strictness, eighteen adults were found prepared, 
and were baptized before the end of the year 1S35. 

Before long, JPana the head chief was among the 
baptized ; and, like Eipi of Mawi, he had no sooner 
himself become a true believer, than he anxiously 
sought the salvation of others. He visited many of the 
adjacent tribes with his new weapon of war," as he 
called his copy of the word of God, and received a 
hearty welcome, now that, as they said, " they need no 
longer dread him, as they did when he sought to de- 
vour them like a dog." 

We could spend much time at Kaitaia, with its 
1 labourers, and among its nourishing schools, 
its native teachers, its Sunday congregations of six 
hundred, and its many communicants ; but we must 
leave it, like the other stations, unnoticed from the 
year 1840 till we return to give the reader a brief sum- 
mary of its present state. 

One little history, however, we must insert. Tawai, 
the chief of Waima, near Hokiangha, had long been 
the inveterate foe of Pana and his tribe ; and reports 
of his hostile approach frequently filled the valley of 
Kaitaia with dismay and terror. One Sunday morn, 
ing Mr. Mathews was told that this fierce chief was 
in the Mission settlement : not knowing what this 
could mean, he went to see, and to his astonishment, 
a 2 



180 



PAXA AXD MOIII. 



was told by him that his name was no longer Tawai, 
but Molii (Moses). The savage warrior had become a 
Christian. It appeared that one of his slave girls had, 
some time before, lived in one of the Mission families 
at Paihia, where she had received the usual instruction. 
Tawai took her away to come and live with him ; but 
the poor girl continued to repeat the prayers and cate- 
chisms she had learnt. Her master forbade her, but 
she persevered ; he threatened to shoot her, still she 
persisted ; till at length, wondering what could make 
her heart so bold, he began to examine the subject for 
himself. It pleased God to awaken and convert him ; 
and one of his first acts after his baptism was to visit 
his old enemies the Earewas, and tell them of the 
treasure he had found. He knew not that they had 
Missionaries among them ; and it was therefore to his 
equal surprise and joy that at a village he passed 
through, he heard that Pana, his former foe, was a Chris- 
tian like himself. The two chiefs worshipped together 
that day in the house of God, spent the evening in re- 
lating to each other the different ways by which God 
had led them, and Mr. Matthews found them the next 
morning at the school, standing in the same class, and 
reading together the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. 

Mohi did not live long to bring forth fruit ; he died 
soon after, and his remains were laid beside those of 
Eipi, in the little burial-ground of MawL* 

* Mr. Davis, speaking of this circumstance, says, " I have heen to 
Mawi, to the burial of Moses Kowaitahi. The funeral was well 
attended, and after the service I addressed the assembly. This 
burial-ground is to me a very interesting spot ; it is the site of the 
first raupo chapel in this village. Several years have now passed 
away, since I first endeavoured to lisp the gospel of love to this tribe, 



HIHDRANCES. 



181 



Will not our readers, after reading this and the two 
preceding chapters, join with Mr. Davis in saying, 
" These are blessed times," when the Spirit of Grod 
seemed so evidently moving on the face of the once 
dark chaos ? We were going to call this period the 
spring-time of the Mission, when the dry and leafless 
branches were bursting into life and bloom, and were 
giving promise of abundant produce. But we remember 
that much fruit had been already ripened ; that at every 
station some had already been gathered in; and autumn 
seemed blended with the spring in ]NW Zealand's in- 
fant church. 

AH this while the enemy of souls had not been idle 
in his endeavours to hinder the work of Grod. One of 
his devices was to lead some, whose consciences had 
been half awakened, to form a sort of sect among 
themselves ; and, by a strange fatality, they gave to the 
new doctrine the name of " Ngakuhi" or the serpent. 
This doctrine was a mixture of truth and error. It 
recognised a Sabbath day, but fixed on Saturday in- 
stead of Sunday ; and, while it acknowledged some of 
the moral precepts of the Gospel, mixed with them 
many heathen superstitions. It gained ground a good 
deal among those who dared not remain altogether hea- 
then, and yet would not submit themselves to the yoke 

Of C HEIST. 

on this spot. Many bodies, among which, are Ripi and Tupapa, are 
here sleeping in the dnst, awaiting the glorious resurrection morn. 
Then what a glorious burst of joy will arise from this sacred spot ! 
While they were in the body, they were poor, despised, degraded 
savages ; but having been washed in a Saviours blood, and clothed 
with his righteousness, they will rise clothed in immortal bloom. 
Oh the blessedness of the everlasting gospel ! M 



182 



HINDRANCES. 



But a far greater and more permanent obstacle to 
the work of GrOi) was the arrival, in 1838, of a Romish 
bishop and his priests, who spared neither pains nor 
money to make proselytes. It is true that none of 
those who were well instructed in the word of GrOD 
were eventually led astray by them, and that even the 
more intelligent among the heathen despised their cru- 
cifixes and images of saints ; yet their sophisms and 
bold assertions perplexed many a weak though true 
disciple ; and the religion they promulgated was so 
agreeable to fallen human nature, that it could not 
fail to find acceptance among those who desired to re- 
tain their sins, and yet to be saved at last. 

The increase of European settlers at Kororarika 
proved another great and trying evil : but of this we 
shall have occasion to speak more fully in a future 
chapter. 

Yet, notwithstanding all obstacles and all discourage- 
ments, the work of God went on ; and in the begin- 
ning of 1840 the average number of regular attendants 
at Divine worship, at the five northern stations, was 
computed as exceeding 3000 ; and the communicants 
amounted to 200. "We cannot find any exact state- 
ment of the number of the baptized. 

In 1839 these northern stations had the advantage of 
a visit from the Bishop of Australia, Dr. Brought on, who 
spent some weeks among them, surprised and thankful 
for all he witnessed. He wrote a most kind and encour- 
aging account of them to the Society, showing the real 
interest he felt in the Mission, not only by his warm and 
general approbation, but by pointing out a few minor 



MR. MABSDES 3 LAST VISIT 



183 



points in which he thought further improvements 
might be effected. 

And now we must close this Chapter with the record 
of events that carry us back to the first gleam of light 
that ever broke upon this land, and bring before our 
readers for the last time the venerable founder of this 
Mission. 

In 1837, Mr. Marsden paid his seventh visit to New 
Zealand, and landed with his daughter, at Hokianga, 
on February 24. The infirmities of age w r ere now 
upon him ; the strong frame that had in former years 
enabled him to travel hundreds of miles on foot, 
through forest, swamp, and mountain, was enfeebled ; 
and most of the forty miles from Hokianga to Waimate 
were traversed in a litter. More than seventy of the 
Hokianga natives accompanied him, and the many who 
came out from Waimate to meet and welcome him swell- 
ed his attendant train into quite an imposing band. 

But though this good man's natural strength was 
thus abated, and his eyes were dim, his mind was as 
clear and firm, and his heart even more loving than be- 
fore. His first employment was the reconciliation of 
two contending parties in the north, whose struggle 
would have endangered the safety of the Kaitaia sta- 
tion ; and afterwards he spent six months among the 
settlements, " blessing and blest where'er" he went. 
Everywhere the natives welcomed him with open arms ; 
they would sit with their eyes rivetted upon him ; and, 
when requested to withdraw, would say, " We wish to 
have a very long and stedfast look at our old friend, 
for we shall never see him again." 

Before he left the Island Mr. Marsden went on 



184 



ME. MAESDEX. 



a cruise to Cook's Straits ; and our love for the me- 
mory of this servant of God leads us to insert a few 
lines from the Rev. A. M". Brown, who accompanied 
him. "June 8th, 1837. We enjoyed a most lovely 
evening. In a long conversation with Mr. Marsden 
on deck, he spoke of almost all his old friends having 
preceded him to the eternal world. Romaine, Newton, 
the Milners, Scott, Robinson, Buchanan, Good, Tho- 
mason, Rowland Hill, Legh Richmond, Simeon, and 
others. He then alluded in a very touching manner 
to his late wife. They had passed, he observed, more 
than forty years of their pilgrimage in company, and 
he felt the separation more severely as the months 
passed on. I remarked that their separation would be 
but for a short time longer : ' God grant it ! ' was his 
reply ; and then lifting his eyes toward the moon, 
which was peacefully shedding her beams on the sails 
of our little bark, he exclaimed with intense feeling, 

1 Prepare me, Lord, for Thy right hand ; 
Then come the joyful day ! "' 

Mr. Marsden returned to Sydney in August, and on 
the 12th of the following May, 1838, the sainted 
spirit left its earthly tabernacle. He had been speak- 
ing of the " precious hope" he had in Christ : and 
the last words that were heard from his dying lips 
were, " Precious, precious, precious!" 

Mr. Marsden died at the age of seventy-three, having 
been forty-five years Chaplain in New South Wales. 

Blessed servant of thy Lord, thou restest from thy 
labours, and thy works do follow thee ! 



CHAPTEE XVI. 



SOUTHERN STATIONS — THAMES — ROTO-RUA — TAURANGA— 
MATA-MATA. 

" I will work, and who shall let it ? " — Is a. xliii. 13. 

We are now entering npon a new and important era 
in the records of the New Zealand Mission. Mnch of 
our attention has hitherto been directed to the diffi- 
culty with which the Missionaries maintained their 
position in the country itself, and the expenditure of 
nerve and energy required for the mere breaking up 
the rocky ground, and preparing the soil to receive the 
seed from which they were hereafter to reap so rich a 
harvest. But it is far different with the present por- 
tion of our history. Here our gracious God took, as 
it were, the work of previous preparation specially into 
His own hands, and by some unknown or unlikely 
means, by a ransomed slave or a runaway scholar, He 
led the blood-thirsty warrior to desire peace, and the 
fierce cannibal to become importunate for instruction. 
"We do not undervalue the part, direct or indirect, that 
the Missionaries themselves had in this work of pre- 
paration ; we know that in their visits to places on the 
coast they had never ceased to proclaim the gospel of 
salvation ; and we know that the uprightness of their 
dealings, their warm interest in the welfare of the peo- 
ple, and above all their strenuous efforts for the main- 
tenance of peace, had all had their influence on the 



186 



SOUTHERN TRIBES. 



acute minds and susceptible hearts of the Maoris. It 
was from the Missionaries too that the slaves and 
school-boys had received their own Christian know 
ledge. But all these things combined, were wholly 
insufficient, even according to human judgment, to ac- 
count for the phenomena ; and the only conclusion we 
can arrive at is, that those among whom the brethren 
were now called to labour were in an especial manner 
a people prepared by the Lord. 

" Deep in unfathomable mines 
Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up His bright designs, 
And works His sovereign will." 

Eumours had reached the southern tribes, of the 
white people in the Bay of Islands, and of the tran- 
quillity and increased prosperity of those districts that 
had listened to the "Karakia" of the Missionaries; 
and when Mr. "Williams and his companions visited 
the Eiver Thames and the Bay of Plenty in 1832 and 
1833, they were almost everywhere met with earnest 
entreaties for white men to come and dwell among 
them, that they also might " learn to sit still." This 
was too favourable an opening to be neglected ; and as 
the Mission had lately been strengthened by fresh 
arrivals from England, it was determined that no time 
should be lost in commencing a new settlement on the 
Thames. In October, 1833, the Eev. H. "Williams, 
the Eev. A. IN". Brown, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Eair- 
burn, started in a small vessel to seek for a desirable 
spot, and as they sailed along they could not but ob- 
serve how the evidences of war and destruction had 
increased within the last few years — especially w r hen 
they entered the once well-peopled estuary of the 



HTVER THAMES, 



187 



Thames was this most apparent. " It was," says Mr. 
"Williams, " melancholy to look around ; all was perfect 
stillness ; there was no bustle of active life ; no ves- 
sels, boats, or canoes moving, on either hand, over the 
surface of these waters which spread like magnificent 
rivers among the numerous islands. Traces of former 
towns and villages were visible as we sailed along, and 
wherever we turned ; but all the inhabitants had been 
destroyed, or taken captive, or had fled." On one of 
these islands they spent a Sunday, " Nought was 
heard but birds of sweet and varied note, skipping 
from branch to branch, as though surveying the group 
of strangers who had intruded on the quiet of their 
abodes. As we sang the praises of God and our Re- 
deemer, their notes were also distinctly heard with 
ours. But I felt," continues Mr. Williams, " an inde- 
scribable sensation as I viewed the ground on which 
we sat. For many successive years, this neighbour- 
hood has been the seat of war in its most savage and 
infernal form." Then, after alluding to some of the 
horrible deeds of cannibalism that had probably been 
perpetrated on that very spot, he adds, " But, that the 
Lord has now here heard the prayers of His people, I 
consider is an earnest for good ; and this place is, as it 
were, now consecrated to Him." 

They pursued their course up the river, occasionally 
going on shore to reconnoitre, and finding everywhere, 
even where formerly they had not been suffered to 
land, the most hearty welcome and urgent entreaties 
to remain. " We keep the Ra-tapu," was the frequent 
plea, " but we can do no more till a teacher comes." 
The most eligible locality they had yet found was 
Puriri, where the people, delighted to see them, 



188 



PURIRI. 



crowded round to lead them to the most favourable 
situation for a future settlement, and did all in their 
power to make them comfortable. As the day was 
closing, the Missionaries invited the people to attend 
the evening worship they were about to hold with their 
own natives, who had accompanied them ; and in a few 
minutes from a hundred and fifty to two hundred had 
assembled. The shades of evening were fast closing 
in, several fires had been kindled, and as the uncertain 
flames gleamed on the mats of these children of the 
wilds, and lighted up their fine expressive faces, it 
formed a most striking scene. Mr. Williams gave out 
the hymn ; and in a moment the whole party burst 
into a full chorus, with words and tune correctly sung.* 
The Missionaries almost doubted their own senses, but, 
taking no notice, proceeded in their worship. Again 
their wonder was excited; the loud Amen, the Lord's 
Prayer repeated in unison, seemed like some dreamy 
vision. The mystery was soon solved ; three lads who 
had formerly been taken captive in Hongi's wars, and 
had lived for some time in one of the Mission families, 
had afterwards either made their escape, or been re- 
deemed ; and on their return home, though, as it would 
seem, without any books, had thus successfully im- 
parted to their countrymen some of the knowledge 
they had acquired. 

* A painful contrast to this scene occurred in the course of this 
eame expedition. The party happened to pitch their tents for the 
night near a raupo hut inhabited by some English flax-dressers. 
They appeared very friendly and good-natured ; but as the evening 
drew on, and the young natives of Mr. Williams' party began their 
usual worship among themselves by singing a hymn, the four 
Englishmen began to sing likewise, and attempted to drown the 
praises of God by Bacchanalian songs. 



FUBIKI. 



189 



But this solution of the mystery did not lessen the 
wonder and adoring gratitude of the Missionaries ; 
thev did not hesitate to fix on Puriri for the new 
settlement ; raupo houses were begun, and before many 
weeks had passed Mr. Fairburn and Mr. Preecewith 
their families were settled in their new abode. The 
station soon assumed an air of comfort and of hope ; the 
schools were well attended ; mothers, and even grand- 
mothers, were sometimes seen side by side with their 
own children learning the first simple lessons of Scrip- 
ture truth. Before long the temporary chapel was 
more than filled with orderly and attentive congrega- 
tions, and many of the people acknowledged their 
belief in the truth of Christianity, though their super- 
stitious fears kept their hearts still in darkness. Xor 
Was it only in Puriri itself that the ground had been 
made ready for the sowing ; it was no uncommon thing 
to hear some of the natives several miles distant from 
the settlement, and quite unconnected with Europeans, 
repeat portions of the Loed's Prayer, and other short 
petitions. One day a chief fifteen miles off came to Mr. 
Rurburn to ask for a slate. " What can you want it 
for?" was the natural question, " I want to write ; I 
have learnt from a young man in my own village who 
was once at school in the Bay of Islands." 

The state of the surrounding tribes was at this time 
very melancholy ; murders and massacres were con- 
tinually occurring among themselves ; more than one 
trading vessel was plundered ; and notwithstanding 
this continued anxiety for men of peace to live among 
them, tranquillity was in 1834 as much a stranger on 
the banks of the Thames, as it had been in 1814 on 
the shores of the Bay of Islands. The time and 



190 



EOTO-EUA. 



strength of the Missionaries were often taxed to pre- 
vent hostilities, or to rescue some innocent victim of 
revenge or caprice ; and though frequently with good 
success, the restless violence of the people round Puriri 
rendered it necessary, in 1837, to remove the new 
settlement some miles lower down the river, and Jlau- 
riki and Maraetai were chosen for the future stations. 
Here the Mission took root and prospered ; persons 
came from distances of six or eight miles to receive in- 
struction, and it is a remarkable circumstance that the 
unsettled state of the country did not seem at all to 
interfere with the desire of learning. In 1839 the 
Missionaries calculated that not less than from 800 to 
1000 of the Thames natives had learnt to read. In 
1840, when this part of our history closes, seventy of 
the Maraetai natives, and ten from Hauriki, had been 
baptized, and with one or two exceptions were walking 
uprightly. 

EOTO-RUA. 

The people near the lake of Boto-rua, much farther 
still to the south, had been among the earliest and the 
most importunate of the applicants for a Missionary set- 
tlement. They had heard something about spiritual 
things from Pita and his wife ; # and as early as 1831 
they sent Waretutu, one of their chiefs, to Paihia to 
request that teachers might be sent to them, assuring 
Mr. "Williams that they were not influenced by any 
hope of pecuniary advantages, but simply by a wish 
to "learn how to sit in peace." The messenger seem- 
ed so much in earnest, that Mr. H. "Williams and Mr. 
Chapman resolved to visit the district and judge for 

* Page 131. 



EOTO-ETTA. 



191 



themselves. They set out in October of that same 
year, and had a most interesting expedition. The na- 
tural scenery was far more striking than anything 
they had yet seen in the Island. The view of the 
lake itself was very fine as they approached it : on the 
nearer side a noble wood stretched down to the water's 
edge ; the islands in the lake, the steam of hot springs 
rising towards the north, and the richly wooded hills 
of Tarawera in the back-ground, formed a lovely scene. 
The whole country was full of nature's wonders : here 
were boiling caldrons of mud, black, blue, gray, green, 
yellow, and red, giving out their lazy steam ; close to 
these, and as if purposely in contrast, were clear pools 
of bright azure- coloured boiling water, enclosed in na- 
tural walls of sulphurous formation. But the most 
beautiful objects were the jets: these boiling foun- 
tains, thrown out from the top of irregularly shaped 
cones of a pinkish colour formed from the deposit of 
the water, rose many feet into the ah', descending again 
in silvery foam, and sparkling in the sunshine. Some 
of these hot springs are guided by the natives into 
natural or artificial hollows in the rocks, where their 
temperature being regulated by a stream of cold water 
that flows among them, they serve as baths ; and when 
Mr. "Williams and Mr. Chapman paid their first visit, 
the chiefs received them sitting in these novel chairs 
of state.* 

But it will be well believed that these natural ob- 
jects were not those that chiefly interested the Mission- 
aries ; and their desire for better things was equally 
gratified. They were most heartily welcomed, and the 

* See also Bishop of New Zealand's Journal. 



192 



EOTO-RUA. 



desire for instruction surpassed their highest anticipa- 
tions. Old and young crowded round them to learn 
their letters ; and during the two or three days they 
remained there, they were never without scholars, 
sometimes to the number of two hundred, many of 
whom would remain nearly the whole day endeavour- 
ing to master the alphabet. Even after the Mission- 
aries were in the canoe on their way back, some of 
the children still came round, begging for fresh les- 
sons. 

It was with some difficulty the people would allow 
Mr. Chapman to depart, and not till they had exacted 
a promise to return as soon as he could. Nothing 
could be done however immediately, as Koto-rua was 
too distant from the Bay of Islands to make a resi- 
dence there safe till an intermediate station could be 
formed ; but as soon as that on the Thames seemed 
established, the brethren again turned their thoughts 
towards the further South. 

This delay appeared very long to the anxious ex- 
pectants at Hoto-rua; and in June, 1834, "Waretutu 
again appeared at Paihia to urge Mr. Chapman to de- 
lay no longer. As the chief still lingered on from day 
to day, and seemed unwilling to depart, Mr. Chapman 
asked him when he intended to return ? "Iam going 
to wait here," was his reply; "you tell me that when 
another comes, you and he will come to Eoto-rua ; so 
I shall wait, and wait, and wait, the winter, and all the 
summer, and then the stranger will come, and we will all 
go back together." The young chief's hopes and expect- 
ations were at last fulfilled, and in July, 1835, Mr. 
Chapman, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Pilley entered on 
their new work. The people's desire for learning had 



EOTO-EUA. 



193 



not abated ; there were numbers of willing and atten- 
tive scholars ; and the Missionaries looked forward to 
the completion of their raupo buildings as the period 
when they should be able to devote more of their time 
and energies to their spiritual work. They little ex- 
pected they should be driven from it so soon ! 

They were collecting the people for service on the 
morning of their first Christmas day, when a cry of 
murder was heard, and the Missionaries hastened out 
to inquire the cause. They found that Huku, a chief 
on the borders of the lake, but not one of those with 
whom the brethren had had intercourse, treacherous 
as the ground on which his village stood,* had mur- 
dered Honga, a chief of Mata-mata, a neighbouring 
tribe, who had come to him on a friendly visit. Huku 
had received an injury; he could not discover from 
whom, and, unable to punish the real offender, resolved 
to wreak his vengeance on the first person, whether 
friend or foe, that came within his power ; and Honga 
was slain and eaten before the fierce passions of the 
savage Huku could be quieted. 

We shall have occasion hereafter to relate how 
Mata-mata and its allies flew to arms to demand " utu " 
for the slaughtered chief; here we shall only say that, 
after seven or eight months of danger and insecurity, 
the Mission dwelling was in August, 1836, attacked by 
the infuriated warriors of Mata-mata. Every article of 
furniture and clothing was plundered or destroyed, Mr. 
Knight and Mr. Pilleyf were stripped, and hardly 
escaped with their lives ; the latter was rescued by the 
people of Eoto-rua, and the former was saved from 

* Page 9. 

f Mr. Chapman fortunately was absent. 



194 



TAURAKGA. 



death by a young chief of the enemy's party. The 
Mission premises were burnt to the ground, and the 
brethren fled to Paihia. 

TAURANGA. 

The Mission at Tauranga, on the eastern coast, was 
another of the fruits of the visits of Mr. H. Williams 
and his friends in 1832 and 1833. It was commenced 
in 1835 by Mr. "Wilson, Mr. Wade, and Mr. P. King. 
The instructions they gave were gradually gaining 
influence among the people ; ninety-five attended for 
daily teaching; and their congregations, including 
those in the adjacent villages, often numbered from 
400 to 500. But the war between Mata-mata and 
Roto-rua involved Tauranga likewise ; and after en- 
deavouring to maintain their post for above a year from 
the time of the breaking out of hostilities, they also 
were obliged to return to the Bay of Islands. 

All this while the inland portion of the Island had 
not been uncared for. In 1834, Mr. W. AVilliams, 
Mr. Brown, and Mr. Morgan travelled on foot through 
a large portion of the interior ; everywhere meeting 
with hospitality and kindness, and frequently with a 
cordial welcome, and with entreaties that they would 
come and settle among them. Many of the chiefs 
were tired of fighting, and seemed to think that if 
Missionaries would come and live among them, peace, 
as by a sort of magic charm, would necessarily follow. 
"I shall go on fighting," said one fine young chief, 
" till Missionaries come and break my legs ; then I will 
sit still and learn." — " The Ngapuis," said old Waharoa 
of Mata-mata, " have left off war because they have 
Missionaries, but how can I learn ? can the trees teach 



MATA-MATA 



193 



me?" while on all sides they were met with the re- 
proachful question, " Why did you not come in our 
fathers' time, then we should have learnt better from 
our childhood ? " 

The result of this expedition was the formation of 
the fresh stations of JIata-mafa, and Mangapouri, both 
of them to the south of Puriri, but north of Eoto-rua. 

Mr. Hamlin and Mr. Stack were appointed to Man- 
gapouri, but before they had even settled there, a 
change had come over the mind of the principal chief, 
Awarahari ; and he who had the preceding year been 
so urgent for their arrival, now used not only threats 
but violence towards them. Still however they re- 
mained, for they were tmwilling to desert the one or 
two hundred persons that assembled for Divine wor- 
ship, or the sixty men and boys, and thirty girls, who 
came to them for daily instruction ; till, finding their 
difficulties and dangers increase, in September, 1836, 
they removed to Manukan or Waikato, on the western 
coast, where the Rev. E. Maunsell had lately com- 
menced a Mission with good prospects of success. 

MATA-MATA. * 

Mata-mata was undertaken by the Eev. A. IV. Brown, 
Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Piatt. They arrived in April, 
1835, and. though they found the generality of the 

* It has been so rare in the course of this history to meet with 
Europeans -who haye not been hinderers of the work of God, that 
we rejoice to mention an English flax-gatherer in the neigh- 
bourhood of Mata-mata, who regularly hoisted his flag on Sundays, 
to remind the natives of the Ka-tapu ; and though he does not seem 
to have given them instruction, had encouraged them to keep it 
holy some time before any Missionary had visited the place. 



196 



MATA.-MATA. 



natives far more troublesome than they bad expected, 
yet "Waharoa, tbe principal chief, was always friendly, 
and their progress among the people was very encour- 
aging. About two hundred attended Divine worship at 
the settlement itself, and not less then three hundred 
more at the different out-stations ; while, as early as 
February, 1838, the numbers attending the schools 
were a hundred men and boys, ninety women and 
girls, and fifty infants. 

But the murder at Koto-rua caused a grievous inter- 
ruption in this promising state of things. The mur- 
dered chief was nearly related to "Waharoa, and, ac- 
cording to the native custom, it was for him to avenge 
his death. Prevailing on the people of Tauranga and 
some others of his neighbours to join him, he declared 
war against Eoto-rua and all connected with it ; and 
though Mr. Brown and Mr. Maunsell spared no pains 
to dissuade him from his project, all was of no avail, 
and he continued his hostile course. Soon the whole 
country was in commotion, and the Missionaries found 
it necessary to send their families away. They them- 
selves remained behind; and though the plunder of 
their houses * at Mata-mata, and the threats of some of 
the ill-disposed, forced them to retire to Tauranga, yet 
from hence they visited their former neighbourhood, 
and held occasional services in the villages. Thus they 
continued, moving fearlessly among both the hostile 
parties, speaking to them of their evil ways, and bear- 

* We do not know whether it was on this occasion or at the simi- 
lar occurrence at Roto-rua, that a portrait of Mr. Marsden was 
among the spoil. Some of the property was afterwards recovered, but 
not an article had escaped injury, except this portrait, which had 
evidently been recognised and preserved with the greatest care. 



TTtTALS. 



197 



ing with meekness the insults to which they were ex- 
posed, till, the passions of the people becoming more 
inflamed as the struggle went on, it was, early in 1837, 
found necessary to withdraw the whole Missionary 
band from this part of the Island, leaving however a 
few native teachers at the dhTerent settlements. 

"We must draw a veil over the scenes of cannibalism 
that took place during this dreadful war. The very 
air was at times polluted ; and the sights and sounds 
the Missionaries were forced to witness were even 
more appalling than those we before alluded to in the 
Bay of Islands. Perhaps the atrocities themselves 
might not have been more black, but our brethren were 
here brought into closer contact with them : we shud- 
der when we recall the details ; and yet we feel how 
impossible it is that any description should convey 
more than a faint idea of what those devoted men were 
called on to endure. 

But neither the dreadful scenes to which they were 
exposed, nor even the doubt as to their own personal 
safer}-, could long keep these servants of Grod away 
from what they believed to be their appointed work ; 
and before the year had closed we find them returning 
to their stations. 

Mr. Chapman and Mr. Morgan repaired to Eoto- 
rua, and again began the erection of Mission buildings ■ 
not, as before, on the margin of the lake, but on a 
little island, where they would be less exposed to danger 
from an enemy. The continuance of hostilities pre- 
vented the more rapid progress of the Grospel among 
this promising people, yet it continued to spread ; there 
was scarcely a village round the lake in which the in- 
habitants had not, of their own accord, built a raupo 



198 



TAUBASTGA A^D MATA-MATA. 



chapel, and the word of God had reached as far as to 
the Taupo lake. In 1840 the regular attendants at 
Divine worship, including those of Taupo, amounted 
to 2000. 

The blessing of God rested also on the undaunted 
Missionaries at Tauranga. Upon their return to their 
work the j found the desire for instruction stronger 
even than before ; and it was a strange yet welcome 
sight, to look out upon the shallow creek that divides 
Tauranga from the nearest village, and see perhaps 
one or two hundred natives swimming across, that they 
might be present at the Sunday services. 

It had been thought better to concentrate the Mis- 
sionary strength ; and Mr. Brown therefore remained 
at Tauranga, instead of again taking up his residence 
at Mata-mata. He frequently however visited this 
his former station, and had the joy to find that the 
inquirers after truth had remained stedfast under the 
native teachers in whose charge they had been left. 
Indeed they were so much in earnest, that three hun- 
dred of them had literally "come out front" the rest, 
and built a new village for themselves, where they 
could worship God without interruption. The leader 
of this movement was Tarapipi, the son of the old 
chief Waharoa, at whose invitation the Missionaries 
had originally settled there, but who, alas ! had in the 
mean time died a heathen. 

But we must go back a little, and relate some events 
that had occurred before Mr. Brown and Mr. Morgan 
had been driven to take refuge at Tauranga. Ngakuhu 
was a nephew of "Waharoa, a young man of a most 
daring and desperate character ; but from the time of 
Mr. Brown's first visit to Mata-mata, he had seemed 



NGAKUEX. 



199 



softened ; he forsook his evil ways, regularly attended 
Divine Service, and was constant at the school. By 
degrees he openly professed his belief in Christianity, 
and though his apprehension of Divine things was for 
a long time feeble, yet he was evidently sincere, and 
anxious for further light. Soon his faith was to be put 
to a severe test. W e need scarcely say that he took 
no part in the war now raging ; but, unoffending as he 
was, he was destined to suffer from it. Having in 
company with some other natives undertaken to convey 
some of the Mata-mata Mission property to Tauranga 
as a place of greater security, on their return they were 
benighted, and finding an old deserted raupo hut, re- 
solved to remain there till the morning. Just before 
day-break, they were awakened by the barking of their 
dogs, and found themselves attacked by a party of 
Eoto-rua natives, who had been guided to the spot by 
the light of their fire on the preceding evening. Mr. 
Flatt, the catechist, who was with them, had pitched 
his tent at a little distance, and happily the assailants 
were attracted by the hope of European plunder to 
make their first attack upon this, so that ]N"gakuku with 
his companions had time to escape and conceal them- 
selves in the high fern. When the day dawned, all 
were safe except that JN^gakuku's little girl, who in 
the dim light he thought had accompanied them, was 
missing. As soon as the spoilers had disappeared^ 
]S*gakuku and his company returned to the tents, and 
found them stripped and empty, save that there lay 
the body of the murdered child ; her heart and the top 
of her head having been carried away by the mur- 
derers ^ an offering to some evil spirit. Two years 
before, and JSTgakuku would have demanded " utu" for 



200 



* 

a far slighter injury than this ; but now he brought 
the dead body of his beloved child meekly to the set- 
tlement ; and when Mr. Brown attempted to comfort 
him, the heart-stricken father answered, " The only 
reason why my heart is dark is that I do not know 
whether my child is gone to heaven or to the Eeinga. 
She has heard the Grospel with her ears, and read it 
with Mata Brown, but I do not know whether she re- 
ceived it into her heart." The next day, October 20th, 
Mr. Brown writes, " I buried poor Tarore. Those who 
so narrowly escaped a similar death followed the corpse 
to the grave ; round which were collected various groups 
of natives. After we had sung a hymn and 1 had ad- 
dressed the assembled party, JNTgakuku asked me if he 
might say a few words ; and on my assenting, he said, 
w T ith great solemnity of feeling, ' There lies my child, 
she has been murdered, as a payment for your bad con- 
duct. But do not you rise to seek a payment for her ; 
Grod will do that. Let this be the finishing of the war 
with Eoto-rua ; now let peace be made. My heart is 
not dark for Tarore, but for you. You urged teachers 
to come to you ; they came, and now you are driving 
them away. You are weeping for my child; I am 
weeping for you — for myself— -for all of us. Perhaps 
this murder is a sign of God's anger toward us for 
our sins. Turn to Him ; believe, or you will all perish.' " 
Mr. Brown continues ; "Can I doubt who it is that 
has given calmness, resignation, and peace to this poor 
native at a time when we could have expected little 
else than the wild tumult of unsubdued grief? It was 
not insensibility on the part of JNgakuku, for his feel- 
ings are naturally keen; it was not indifference, for he 
was fondly attached to his child. JNTo ! it was the 



SCRIPTURES. 



201 



manifestation of His power who, amidst the londest 
howlings of the wildest storm, distinctly whispers to 
His children, 6 It is I, be not afraid.' " 

A year or two after the return of Mr. Brown to 
Tauranga, Ngakuku was baptized by the name of Wil- 
liam Marsli ; and the last mention we can find of 
this interesting chief is his accompanying Mr. Brown, 
in 1841, on an embassy from the Prince of Peace to 
the chief of Tanpo, with whom he had formerly been at 
deadly strife. 

We will not close this chapter without more parti- 
cularly referring to the eifect produced by the circu- 
lation of portions of Scripture among these people. 
The desire for knowledge, which had always been so 
striking a feature in the Maori character, had, since the 
preaching of the Grospel, received a right direction, and 
was becoming subservient to their eternal interests. 
The thirst for reading was extraordinary, and no trou- 
ble was thought too great that would open to them 
the treasures contained in the books now printed in 
their own tongue. They would spend hours in teach- 
ing one another to read, and the demand for books 
was so great that it was impossible adequately t'o sup- 
ply it, and a journey of many miles was thought lightly 
of, if it resulted in the possession of a book. Mr. 
Maunsell, writing from Waikato, says, " Having pro- 
mised a New Testament to a congregation about five 
days' journey from this, as a reward for the care they 
had taken in the erection of their chapel, one of the 
party accompanied me the whole way back, and finding 
the expected supply had not arrived, he proceeded 
twenty-five miles farther, to Mr. Hamlin's, to obtain 
it. Thus he will have taken a twelve days' journey for 



202 



SCRIPTURES. 



this one book!" # A New Testament, or a Prayer 
Book, was very frequently preferred to any other pay- 
ment ; and an English trader of the Bay of Islands, on 
his return from an expedition to the South, told the 
Missionaries, that if he had but taken books with 
him, he might have obtained a supply of provisions 
in almost any quantity, and at his own price. But 
the following is a still more remarkable instance of 
the desire of these people for the word of God. On 
one of Mr. Brown's journeys to the neighbourhood of 
Taupo, in company with a friend of Missions, Captain 
Symonds, B. and some of his friends, they came to 
a village at the foot of the sacred Tongariro. Captain 
Symonds and his party were very anxious to ascend 
it, but the natives would not permit them, as the 
mountain was tapued, and if the tapu were violated 
some evil would befall them. " They offered us gold," 
said the old chief to Mr. Brown, " but that would 
not tempt us ; had they brought us some ]New r Testa- 
ments, we might have listened to them. Tell the 
strangers," continued he, "when you see them again, 
that if they return in the summer, and bring Testa- 
ments with them, the tapu shall be taken off the moun- 
tain." 

These silent messengers often made their way into 
remote corners of the land where no foot of a Christian 
teacher had ever trod ; and it was no uncommon oc- 
currence for a Missionary to receive an application 
from some distant tribe, or, in travelling, to meet with 
some i*nvisited village, where the inhabitants had 
already learned something of the way of salvation from 

* This is by no means a solitary instance ; and shall we in England 
Buffer " the dusty Bible " to remain unopened on our shelves ? 



SCRIPTURES. 



203 



the books they had procured. Take the following as au 
instance. 

Mr. Morgan writes in February, 1840 : " Yesterday 
a native from the Uriweri, a large tribe living in the 
forest some days' journey from hence, came to solicit 
books, a party there having built a chapel and made 
a profession of Christianity. This place has not yet 
been visited by any Missionary or native teacher, yet 
some of the saving truths of Cueist's gospel were al- 
ready known to them. I asked the men, 4 What must 
you do to be saved r ' * Believe on Jesus Cheist.' 
; When you come home dirty frora work, you go to the 
river and wash, and are clean ; now your heart is very 
dirty from sin, how can your sins be washed away ? ' 
' By the blood/ ; What blood ? 5 ; The blood of the 
Lord:' and the rest of the conversation was in the 
same strain," 



CHAPTER XVII. 



WAIKATO — EAST CAPE — KAPITI — TAMAHANA RAUPARAHA. 

" As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me." 

Psalm xviii. 44. 

We have not yet completed our list of the southern 
stations established about this time, nor the instances 
they afford of the wonder-working power of Divine 
grace upon the native heart : the next we shall men- 
tion is 

WAIKATO. 

This station, situated on the western coast, and 
having Manakan for its out-station, was commenced 
by the Eev. E. Maunsell and Mr. Hamlin in the year 
1837 ; and being happily removed from the immediate 
seat of the war that was then desolating the country 
to the east and south, was preserved from any serious 
interruption. 

We shall pass over the first three years of its ex- 
istence till we come to 18^0 ; and well may Ave give 
praise to Grod for the blessing He bestowed on the 
labours of His servants, when we find that during that 
short period no fewer than three hundred and forty 
adults had been baptized, besides many children. 
Above a hundred of these had at this time become 
communicants, and the whole number of attendants at 



WAIKATO. 



205 



Divim worship throughout the district was computed 
at fifteen hundred. 

There were several cases that called forth Mr. 
Maunsell's peculiar interest. One of these was a lad, 
who, when dying of consumption, employed his last 
breath in urging his half-awakened father, of whom he 
was very fond, to be " strong in prayer." " Pray," he 
would say to him, " as you used to do when you stirred 
up your people to the fight. Cleave to Christ, 
cleave to Cueist, and oh ! that we may live together 
for ever !" 

Another was a young " Ariki" or head chief, of the 
name of Ngataru. He was a stranger to the Mission- 
aries, and lived at some distance from the settlement ; 
but Mr. Maunsell, hearing he was ill, determined to go 
and see him, expecting however that "tapu" would 
prevent his being admitted. To his surprise he was 
received with a hearty welcome, and to his still greater 
astonishment and joy, he found both Ngataru and his 
wife anxious to speak on the subject of religion. A 
New Testament had somehow or another fallen into 
their hands ; they had learnt to read it ; and though 
they had neither of them ever attended any religious 
instruation, nor, as it would seem, had ever seen a 
Christian teacher, yet Grod himself must have taught 
them, for many of the truths contained in their well- 
worn little volume had entered into their hearts. They 
spoke of the salvation of their souls : " On what," 
asked Mr. Maunsell, <£ do you rest for salvation?" 
" On the cross of Christ." " "What good thing have 
you to bring you to God ?" " Nothing but the death 
of Christ." " Do ^ou not think the tapu will restore 



206 



NGATABU. 



you to health ?" " Oh no, it is all ' heri-heri ' " (mere 
nonsense) . 

Of their own accord they moved into the settlement 
that they might receive regular instruction, and after 
some time Mr. Maunsell spoke to them of baptism. 
There was an evident hanging back, and Mr. Maunsell 
was discouraged. By degrees he discovered the cause. 
Being of the highest rank, jNTgataru's clothes were con- 
sidered peculiarly sacred, and should they be desecrated 
by being worn when he was baptized, his relations 
would fall upon him, and plunder him of all his small 
possessions. He was himself willing to run the risk, 
and so was his wife, as far as temporal losses might 
ensue ; but she feared lest her husband's mind shoidd 
be again brought into bondage by the mere possession of 
what he had once held in so much veneration. She join- 
ed with Mr. Maunsell in advising him to follow the ex- 
ample of those who used curious arts among the Ephe- 
sians ; and when Mr. Maunsell rose on the morning of 
their baptism, he saw the smoke of [Ngatariv s burning 
wardrobe ascending from before his hut. The whole 
consisted only of two blankets and a mat ; but He who 
accepted " a turtle dove or two young pigeons/' where 
a costlier offering could not be procured, did not, 
we are persuaded, disdain the sacrifice of the young 
chief's all. 

EAST CAPE. 

And now if our readers will turn to the map prefixed 
to this volume, and recross the Island towards the east, 
they will, after passing Lake Taupo and Eoto-rna, 
come to a large district to which we have hitherto 



EAST CAPE. 



207 



made no allusion, viz. the country to the south and 
west of the East Cape. 

Here a more extensive work was carried on than 
any we have yet related ; and we shall give the account 
of it nearly in Archdeacon W. Williams' own words. 

" We had as yet," said the Archdeacon,^ "had no 
intercourse with the populous districts to the south of 
the East Cape, but in the course of 1833 about twenty 
of these natives were, against their own will, landed at 
the Bay of Islands, 300 miles from their home, by the 
master of a whaling vessel." Some of the people 
wished to detain them as slaves, but the Missionaries 
interfered, and they were removed to Paihia. Here 
they were accidentally, or rather providentially, de- 
tained for some months ; and received the same ad- 
vantages of instruction as the other natives residing at 
the settlement. In January, 1834, Mr. W. Williams 
carried them back to their own country, and, again 
quoting his own words, " Much joy was evinced by the 
people at the return of their relatives, of whom they 
had heard . nothing since their departure. It was 
Saturday, and we reached the village of Eangitukia 
late in the afternoon. Rukuata, the chief of our party, 
gave out to the natives that the following day was to 
be a day of rest, when they were to assemble, and listen 
to the worship the white people pay to the God of 
Heaven. After our prayers that same evening, which 
were held in the open air in the midst of a large con- 
course of wondering savages, our chief gave them a 
long account of what he had heard and seen in the Bay 
of Islands. On the following day the people came to- 

* See CM. S. Intelligencer for February, 1852. " Address deli- 
vered in Magdalen Hall, Oxford." 



208 



EAST CAPE. 



gather as directed, preparations were made by Kukuata 
in a large open space within the Pa ; and there the con- 
gregation assembled. I never saw a more orderly body of 
people. By the direction of Rule uata, they stood when we 
stood, and knelt when we knelt, and listened during the 
whole time of service with extreme attention, (there were 
from 800 to 1000 present). It was but a transient 
visit we could pay them, for we had to continue our 
voyage. Our attention soon after this was engaged 
with the new settlements in the South, then struggling 
for their existence ; # and we heard no more of Eaikuata 
and his party till three years afterwards, when a 
"Waimate chief returned from a visit to the East Cape, 
and told us that the natives there were become a 
Christian people, strictly observing the Sabbath day, 
and meeting together for religious worship. He said 
that this change had taken place ever since the return 
of Kukuata, and that Taumatakara, a slave who had 
lived some years in the Mission station at Waimate, 
had regularly taught the people, many of whom could 
read. This native had obtained the more influence, 
because, having lately accompanied them in an attack 
upon the Pa of their enemies, he had voluntarily ex- 
posed himself to great danger, with his book in one 
hand and his musket in the other : and escaping un- 
hurt, they ascribed his safety and their own success to 
the protection and favour of the G-od of Christians. 
Thus, with a remarkable mixture of superstition on the 
one hand, and of an honest desire, on the other, to 
communicate the little knowledge he possessed, an 
effect was produced by this man that reached to the 
distant villages ; and the minds of the people were 
* See Chapter xvi. 



EAST CAPE. 



209 



prepared for further instruction. It now became an 
imperative duty to take eifectual steps for the improve- 
ment of this favourable opening. As a preparatory 
measure, we selected from among our own Christian 
natives those of the most steady character, who were 
willing to become teachers ; * these being for the most 
part some of the captives who had in former wars been 
brought from this very country. They were provided 
with books and slates, and towards the end of 1838 
were located at different villages along the coast. The 
teachers applied themselves with great diligence to 
their appointed work, and the natives came forward as 
with one consent. They were evidently a people made 
ready by God in the day of His power ; so that when 
at length these places were taken up as Missionary 
stations, we found large congregations assembling, 
schools in active operation, and many candidates in a 
state of forward preparation for baptism." 

In January, 1840, the Eev. W. Williams f under- 
took the charge of this whole district ; no other Eu- 
ropean could be spared to assist him in what he calls 
his " parish of two degrees and a half in length, and 
containing 36,000 souls — and he was obliged to con- 
tent himself Avith the help of his twenty native teachers. 
Throughout the district, at this time, there were more 
than 8000 assembling regularly for worship, and at 
Turanga, where Mr. "Williams fixed his residence, the 
natives at their own expense built a large church 90 
feet by 44. 

* One of these was from Ripi's Tillage of Mawi, and thus that 
good man's influence was brought to bear on these distant tribes, 
f Mr. Williams was appointed Archdeacon in 1843. 

P 



210 



TAMAHAjSA bauparaha. 



The work steadily advanced,* and " the number of 
communicants in the year 1849 amounted to 2893." 
"Well might the favoured Missionary say, that " G-od 
had blessed His vineyard with increase !" 

kapiti. 

But of all the more southern stations formed about 
this time, that of Kapiti, in the neighbourhood of 
Cook's Straits, was established under circumstances 
perhaps more remarkable than any. 

It seems that in the year 1838, Matahau, a native of 
this tribe, having obtained his freedom, left the Bay of 
Islands where he had been living for several years, and 
set off for the South in quest of his relations. He had 
spent some time at Paihia, and had received much in- 
struction, but it had made no impression on him, and 
when he left the settlement he did not even take his 
books with him. On his way he passed through Boto- 
rua, and in company with some of these people he 
proceeded to Otaki, where Bauparaha, the fiercest 
chief of the southern tribes, was then residing. The 
son of Bauparaha, a very intelligent young man, was 
inquisitive to hear the news from the North. Matahau 
gave him a long account of the former wars of the 
Ngapuis, and of their now being tired of fighting ; and 
then spoke of the white men and their religion, of 
their books and their teaching the natives to read. 
The new idea of books seized on the mind of young 
Bauparaha ; he desired to know what the white men's 

* Among the other encouragements that Mr. Williams had in his 
work, he mentions two youths who came to him from a hundred 
miles off. 



TAMAHANA EAUFARAHA. 



211 



religion w r as, # and passionately longed to acquire the 
mysterious art of reading. He entreated Matahau to 
instruct him ; but Matahau had no books, and none 
were to be procured at Otaki. At last Matahau re- 
membered that some of his travelling companions from 
Eoto-rua had spoken of some books they had with 
them. Young Kauparaha eagerly caught at this, and 
with some difficulty and at considerable price he suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the desired treasures. There was 
a Common Prayer Book, an Elementary Catechism, 
and the remains of a torn Gospel of St. Luke, of which 
the rest had been used for cartridges. In the opening 
page of this Glospel was the name of Ngakuku ; so won- 
derfully had G-od ordered it, that this portion of the 
spoil taken from that chief and his friends, two years 
before,t should thus have been preserved, and brought, 
so to speak, accidentally to Otaki, that from it the son 
of the savage Hauparaha might learn the way of salva- 
tion ! 

We will now take the young chief's own account. 
" I and Te Whiwhi (his cousin) and ten young men 
asked Matahau to teach us to read the book. Then 
some of the people said, 6 Why do you want to read 
the book ?' others said, ' It is a bad book.' I said to 
Whiwhi, 6 Never mind their words, let us read.' My 
heart and Whiwhi's, and the other young men's, longed 
to hear the new talk. Matahau read the Catechism 
first to us ; then I spoke out loud to the ten young 
men, and said, 1 Those words are good words, I believe 
all.' Whiwhi said so too, and Uremutu, but the 

* From the young chief's own account, his mind had long been 
led to see the emptiness of the Maori superstitions, 
f Page 199. 

P 2 



212 



TA^AHANA R A U PAR AH A. 



others did not believe ; tiiey said, ' It is not true.' Te 
Whiwhi said, ' If you do not believe, I do;' and he 
and I said we would take Matahau to teach us the 
book. "We took him to Kapiti* that we might be 
quiet. "We gave him food, and clothes, and everything. 
We were in Kapiti with Matahau near six months. 
"We learnt every day, every night. We did not lie 
down to sleep. We sat at night in the hut all round 
the fire in the middle. Whiwhi had part of the book, 
and I part. Sometimes we went to sleep upon the 
book, then woke up and read again. After we had 
been there six months, we could read a little, very 
slowly." 

After this the two young chiefs took Matahau with 
them to some villages cn the mainland to teach the 
people " about the book." " These people," proceeds 
the narrative, " liked it very much ; they believed, 
and they all wanted the book. I told them I could 
not give them my part of it, but I told Matahau to 
write for them on paper, Our Father, &c. He wrote 
it for them all, and they learnt it. Before, Matahau 
had not believed, but now his heart began to grow. 
We talked to him, and he believed." 

The narrative then goes on to tell of these two inter- 
esting and earnest young men, desirous to " hear the 
words straight from a white man's mouth," setting ofi 
for the Bay of Islands. Eauparaha, the father, strongly 
objected to their going ; #ad endeavoured to prevail on 
the captain of the ship in which they had taken their 
passage to put them ashore on the territories of a 
friend of his, Bangihaeta, where he knew they would 

* An island off that part of the coast belonging to the young 
chiefs father. 



TAMAHANA It All PAB A II A. 



213 



be safe from Christian influence. But neither his re- 
monstrances nor his schemes succeeded, and in due 
time they reached the Bay. 

We must omit many particulars of this visit, noi 
may we dwell on the surprise and sorrow of young 
Kauparaha at finding the chief Pomare, who had so 
long had the Missionaries living near him, speak of 
them as " bad men, for they do not drink or fight, nor 
give us muskets and grog, like the whaling men." He 
had long conversations with Mr. H. Williams, and his 
brother, who was then at the Waimate, and strength- 
ened his urgent entreaty for a Missionary by repeating 
those w r ords from St. Matt. v. 14, which he had learnt 
from Matahau, " Ye are the light of the world." " The 
light of the gospel," said he, " has come to the Bay of 
Islands, it is light, why not send the light further, — 
to all?" But he was told to his great distress that 
no Missionary could be spared to return with him. 
6 Oh dark, very dark, our hearts were, we said, we 
have left our homes, our wives, and our people, we 
have come this long way, and now we do not hear good 
talk. Then we went to our ship, very dark. We 
stayed in our cabin two weeks. One day a sailor called 
out that the Missionary's boat had come, and they were 
calling for me. We ran quickly, for my heart was 
happy. Mr. Williams said, ' Friends, do not be angry 
with me any more ; here is your Missionary.' His 
name was the Rev. O. Hadfield. He had heard us 
speak to Mr. Williams at Waimate, but he did not 
understand what we said. When we were gone, he 
said to Mr. Williams, ' What did those Maoris say ? ' 
Mr. Williams told him that we wanted a Missionary ; 
and God put it into his heart to come with us. We 



214 



T AM AH AX A ItAUPAKAHA. 



said, ' We are very much obliged to you, and we were 
very happy."' Mr. H. "Williams accompanied Mr. 
Hadfield and the two young chiefs to the proposed 
new station ; they landed at Port Xicholson, and walk- 
ed overland to the part of the coast opposite Kapiti. 
At several places the people came out to welcome 
them, inviting them to remain and partake of their 
hospitality; nor would they allow them to depart without 
a few words of instruction, as they said they also were 
believers in Jesus Chbist. When they arrived at 
Waikanae, opposite to Kapiti, they were conducted 
into a spacious area within the Pa, where about 1200 
were assembled to greet them. There was just time 
to hold service before sunset, in the course of which 
two hymns were sung, the tunes of which were original, 
and purely native. Matahau, it appeared, since his 
own heart had been changed, had been labouring here 
in instructing others. Many were in a very inquiring 
frame of mind ; they had even erected a neat church, 
lined with tall reeds, ready for the expected Mis- 
sionary. 

It was in 1839 that Mr. Hadfield was thus led to 
take up his abode at Kapiti ; in about six months he 
had the satisfaction of baptizing about twenty natives, 
among whom were Matahau, and the two young chiefs 
who had been so zealous and so active in obtaining for 
themselves and their tribe the privileges and blessings 
of Christian instruction. Young Eauparaha took the 
name of Tamahana, (or Thompson,) Matahau that of 
Joseph, and Te Wniwhi was called Henera Matene 
(or Henry Martyn). "We were all very happy that 
day," wrote Tamahana; "our hearts cried, we were 
very happy." 



TAMAHANA RATI PARA II A . 



215 



Since that time Tamahana has become well known 
to friends in England. He accompanied Archdeacon 
W. Williams on his visit to this country in 1851, and 
returned with him to his native land, carrying with 
him the affectionate interest and esteem of all whc 
knew him. 

Fair are New Zealand's wooded mountains, 

Deep glens, blue lakes, and dizzy steeps : 
But, sweeter than the murmuring fountains, 

Rises the song from holy lips. 
" By blood did Jesus come "to save us, 

So deeply stained with brothers' blood : 
Our hearts we'll give to Him who gave us 

Deliverance from the fiery flood." * 



* Jubilee Hymn, by the late Rev. H. W. Fox. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



GENERAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY COLONIZATION — WAR. 

" thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be 
quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still." — 
Jer. xlvii. 6. 

We wish we could avoid all reference to the secular 
affairs of New Zealand, and spare our readers and our- 
selves the pain of seeing how much gloom and darkness 
for a time overspread the land, arising from the con- 
duct of our own countrymen ; but Ave find we cannot 
give a just idea of the state of the Mission without 
some slight sketch of what we may c&\l political events. 

The mischiefs that arose from the visits of masters 
and crews of vessels to Kororarika, in the Bay of 
Islands, were fearfully increased by its having gradu- 
ally become also the permanent residence of runaway 
convicts and deserters from ships ; men, as it may be 
supposed, of the lowest character and most dissolute 
habits. Here, free from the restraint of law, or even 
the cognizance of the more respectable of their own 
class, they followed the impulse of their own brutal 
wills, and committed every kind of wickedness with 
impunity ; till Kororarika became, to use the words 
of Mr. H. Williams, " the seat of Satan," or, in those 
of Colonel Mundy, "a very Pandemonium." 

* We are indebted to Colonel Mundy's lucid account of the trans- 
actions of the next few years for much that we stale in this chapter. 



CONSUL. 



217 



The effect of such a community on the native popu- 
lation may easily be conceived ; the number of spirit- 
shops, and the efforts of these wretched people to make 
others as profligate as themselves, succeeded but too 
well ; notwithstanding all the endeavours of the chiefs, 
the " liquid fire " soon made some way among the people, 
and the hitherto unknown sight was to be seen, of an 
intoxicated Xew Zealander. 

The chiefs round the Bay deeply felt these evils, and 
they themselves so often suffered outrages from the 
lawless Europeans, that the principal ones among them 
addressed amemorial to King William the Fourth, then 
on the throne of England, begging him to become "the 
friend and guardian of these islands, and to restrain any 
of thy people who shall be troublesome or vicious to- 
wards us." 

The English government had for some time past had 
the subject of the colonization of New Zealand brought 
before them ; but, unwnling to encroach on the rights 
of the native proprietors, they had rejected the idea. 
At length, finding that the evils of Kororarika still in- 
creased with the increase of traffic, and moved by the 
wishes of the chiefs, though they still refused to colo- 
nize the Island, they appointed a consul, who should 
watch over the interests of trade, and, as far as possible, 
suppress the outbreak of crime. 

Mr. Busby arrived in May, 1833, and took up his 
abode at Kororarika. The course he pursued was such 
as to inspire the well-disposed chiefs with confidence, 
and to strengthen the hands of the Missionaries ; but 
was not at all calculated to find favour with the unhappy 
Europeans, who, enraged at the least attempt to check 
their career of wickedness, stirred up the jealousy of 



218 



DIFFICULTIES. 



many of the natives against the consul and the Mis- 
sionaries ; and more than once proceeded to acts of 
violence. * 

The same mischiefs existed, though in a far less de- 
gree, at other places on the coast, where flax-gatherers 
and other traders had established themselves ; and, with 
but very few exceptions, proved how a savage race may 
be sunk deeper still in vice and misery, by intercourse 
with wicked, though so-called civilized, men. 

But a wider-spread evil was beginning to develope 
itself throughout the whole Island, especially in the 
southern part. 

The influence of Christianity had so far softened the 
character of even the heathen natives, that the dangers 
that had driven away the original New Zealand Com- 
pany \ were no longer to be dreaded; and adventurers 
in England and in New South Wales began again to 
turn their eyes to New Zealand as a promising field 
for speculation. Various parties accordingly visited 
the Island, and prevailed on many of the chiefs to part 
with immense tracts of land for an almost nominal 
price. Had the intention of the purchasers been to 
settle themselves upon this newly acquired property, 
to introduce agriculture and the arts of civilized life, 
the New Zealanders would probably have continued to 
acquiesce in the arrangement, even though a few 
blankets, or hatchets, or muskets, were all they had 
received in exchange for thousands of their hereditary 
acres. But when they saw the lands they had so un- 

* It may be as well to observe, that as New Zealand was not at 
this time under English law, Mr. Busby had no effectual means in his 
hands of repressing evil. 

f Chapter viii. note at end. 



TREATY. 



219 



wittingly parted with, divided and sub-divided, sold 
over and over again, and passed from one proprietor to 
another with a large profit on every transfer, their in- 
dignation was naturally roused ; they felt they had 
been imposed upon, and demanded that some at least 
of their property should be restored to them. 

While this evil was yet in its infancy, the British 
government had become aware of the state of things, 
and foresaw the disastrous consequences that must en- 
sue unless some remedy could be applied. The Maori 
chiefs were too independent and too jealous of each 
other ever to coalesce and form a regular government 
of their own ; and the only course that suggested itself 
in order to prevent the whole race from being trodden 
down, and probably annihilated, was to make the Island 
a British colony, subject to British law. 

In furtherance of this plan, Captain Hobson was 
sent out as Lieutenant- Governor of Xew Zealand, and 
arrived in the Bay of Islands in February, 1840 ; heartily 
welcomed by the Missionaries, the few respectable 
English traders who resided there, and all the more 
influential and well-disposed among the chiefs. These 
last gladly entered into a treaty which, while bringing 
the country under English jurisdiction, would secure 
to them the privileges of English subjects. 

As this event was fraught with the most important 
consequences to ISTew Zealand, it may be as well to 
enter into some more detailed account of it, though 
scarcely coming within actual Missionary history. It 
was at a meeting of chiefs and others, convened by 
Captain Hobson in February, 1840, that this treaty 
was signed by forty-six of the northern chiefs. By the 
first article of the treaty they expressly ceded the 



220 



TREATY. 



powers and rights of sovereignty to her Majesty over 
their respective territories ; by the second, her Majesty 
confirmed and guaranteed them in the possession of 
their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other 
properties, so long as they should vrish to retain the 
same ; but they were to yield, at the same time, to her 
Majesty the exclusive right of pre-emption over such 
lands as they might be disposed to alienate ; and the 
third article granted to the natives of New Zealand all 
the rights and privileges of British subjects. 

The acceptance of it by the chiefs was as follows : — 
" We, the chiefs of the confederation of the United 
Tribes of New Zealand, claiming authority over the 
tribes and territories which are specified after our re- 
spectives names, having been made fully to understand 
the provisions of the foregoing Treaty, accept and en- 
ter into the same, in the full spirit and meaning there- 
of. In witness whereof, we have attached our signa- 
tures, or marks, at the places and dates respectively 
specified. 

Done at AYaitangi, this 6th day of February, in tho 
year of our Lord, 1840. 

In his despatches the Lieut.- Governor gives the fol- 
lowing graphic description of the discussion : 

" When I had finished reading the Treaty, I invited 
the chiefs to ask explanations on any point which they 
did not comprehend, and to make any other remarks 
on it which they pleased. Twenty or thirty chiefs ad- 
dressed the meeting ; five or six of whom opposed me 
with great violence; and at one time so cleverly and 
with such effect, that I began to apprehend an unfa- 
vourable impression would be produced. At this 
crisis, the Hokianga chiefs, under INTem and Pataweni, 



TREATY. 



221 



made their appearance ; and nothing could hare been 
more seasonable. 

" It was evident, from the nature of the opposition, 
that some underhand influence had been at work. 
The chiefs Rerewah and Jakahra, who are followers of 
the Roman Catholic bishop, were the principal op- 
posers ; and the arguments were such as convinced me 
that they had been prompted. Rerewah, while ad- 
dressing me, turned to the chiefs, and said, ' Send that 
man away. Do not sign the paper ; if you do, you 
will be reduced to the condition of slaves, and be 
obliged to break stones for the roads : your lands will 
be taken from you, and your dignity as chiefs will be 
destroyed.' 

At the first pause Is eni came forward and spoke 
with a degree of natural eloquence that surprised all 
the Europeans, and evidently turned aside the tempor- 
ary feeling that had been created. He first addressed 
himself to his own countrymen; desiring them to re- 
flect on their own condition, to recollect how much the 
character of the New Zealanders had been exalted by 
their intercourse with Europeans, and how impossible 
it was for them to govern themselves without frequent 
wars and bloodshed : and he concluded his harangue 
by strenuously advising them to receive us, and to 
place confidence in our promises. He then turned to 
me, and said, ; You must be our father. You must not 
allow us to become slaves ; you must preserve our cus- 
toms, and never permit our lands to be wrested from 
us.' 

" One or two other chiefs, who were favourable, fol- 
lowed in the same strain ; and one reproached a noisy 
fellow, named Kitigi, of the adverse party, with having 



222 



TREATY. 



spoken rudely to me. Kitigi, stung by the remark, 
sprang forward and shook me violently by the hand, 
and I received the salute apparently with equal ardour. 
This occasioned among the natives a general expression 
of applause, and a loud cheer from the Europeans, in 
which the natives joined : and thus the business of the 
meeting closed." # 

Captain Hobson then proceeded to the South, where 
scarcely any opposition was raised, and where above 
five hundred chiefs readily accepted the treaty, and 
placed themselves under British protection. A measure 
of this kind was, if possible, more needed here than in 
the North ; for already had the New Zealand Company 
and other settlers established themselves at Wellington 
and the neighbouring coasts, — and not less than five 
thousand white men were to be found along the shores 
of Cook's Straits, and were perpetually coming into 
angry collision with the natives. 

The Governor soon found that his was no easy post ; 
the ill effects of the "underhand influence '' to which 
he alluded in his despatches, soon showed themselves ; 
and every measure he adopted for the real welfare of 
the country was opposed and thwarted by most of the 
Europeans at Kororarika, by the Roman Catholic bi- 
shop, and by all the natives under their influence. 

To those who have read the particulars of all these 
difficulties and annoyances, it is no matter of surprise, 
that, with a delicate constitution and an anxious mind, 
Captain Hob son's health soon gave way under the per- 
plexing and harassing duties of his situation. He died 
in 1843, and Captain Eitzroy was sent to occupy the 
same position. 

* See Missionary Register for 1840, pp. 392—431. 



DIFFICULTIES OF GOVERNMENT. 



223 



The English government had from the first adopted 
various means for the peace and benefit of the coiintry ; 
a few English troops were sent from Sydney ; men of 
experience and integrity were constituted Protectors of 
the Aborigines ; and Commissioners were appointed in 
different places to examine into, and decide upon, the 
various claims put forth by English and by natives for 
the disputed lands. Indeed, could Christian principle, 
uprightness of purpose, and an anxious desire for the 
welfare of the people, in Captain Hobson and Captain 
Eitzroy, as well as in the government at home, have 
availed to insure success, peace and harmony would 
soon have been restored to this distracted land. 

But there were many causes at work to counteract 
all their efforts. The rights of property among the 
natives themselves were so ill defined, and the trans- 
actions with the white men so complicated, that the 
Commissioners found themselves entangled in an almost 
hopeless labyrinth ; while the natives, not understand- 
ing English law, and impatient at the slow process of 
arbitration, grew more and more dissatisfied. A greater 
impediment arose from the continued machinations of 
the interested Europeans, who, in pursuit of their own 
designs, spared no pains to misrepresent the motives of 
the English government to the natives, and on the 
other hand to prejudice the minds of those in authority 
against the chiefs. When we add to these the want of 
accurate knowledge of the real Maori character,* and 
the very inadequate supply of English troops in the 
Island, we shall not be surprised to find that discontent 

* Sir George Grey, in the introduction to his lately published 
work, before mentioned, speaks very strongly of the difficulty of ob- 
taining a thorough insight into the character of the New Zealander. 



224 



WAR. 



increased, spread itself among hitherto friendly chiefs, 
and in 1843 assumed a formidable appearance. Two 
of the principal southern chiefs, Te Hauparaha # and 
Rangihaeta, men of fierce and independent minds, and 
never cordially submitting to foreign sway, took ad- 
vantage of the death of the Governor, and commenced 
open hostilities against the English. In the folio vino; 
year, the flame burst out also in the North ; and ITeki, 
a powerful chief, residing not far from Waimate, sud- 
denly attacked Kororarika in March, 1845, cut down 
the flag-staff, fell upon the few English soldiers sta- 
tioned there, and asserted the independence of himself 
and his people.f 

The next two years are dark pages in New Zealand's 
annals. A few of the Christian natives took part with 
the insurgents, many ranged themselves on the Eng- 
lish side : and the sad spectacle was seen of Maori 
fighting against Maori, under the banner of a Christian 
nation. 

Blood was shed on both sides ; and as the flame of 
discord spread throughout the land, the strife would 
have scarcely ceased, till one party or the other had 
been swept away, had not the timely arrival of a larger 
body of English troops, and the combined firmness and 
clemency of Sir George Grey, J succeeded in putting 
down the insurrection. Peace was happily restored; 
and since 1846 order and tranquillity have prevailed. 

* See Page 210. 

f Heki was a baptized chief. The Missionaries hoped well of him, 
but never felt full confidence in the stability of his principles, though 
there was not sufficient reason to conclude him to be a hypocrite. 
Probably he was carried on by circumstances, and the misrepresent- 
ations of his pretended friends, far beyond his original intentions. 

X Sir G. Grey succeeded Captain Fitzroy as Governor in 1845. 



HEKI. 



225 



It was a very remarkable proof of the feelings with 
which the consistent conduct of the Missionaries had 
inspired the natives, that during all this time, embit- 
tered as the insurgents were against the Government 
and all connected with it. and employed as the Mission- 
aries often were in negotiating between the parties, 
their word was always trusted, and they were treated 
with friendliness and confidence even by the most hos- 
tile of the natives. 

The almost chivalrous conduct of Heki on one occa- 
sion deserves to be mentioned. 

Walker Xeni. the Christian chief on the side of 
Government, mentioned in Captain Hobson's despatch, 
was preparing to give battle to Heki, when the Bev. B. 
Burrows, then residing at the Waiinate, proceeded to 
the spot, with a message to both the leaders from two or 
three influential neutral chiefs. He had been well re- 
ceived by Heki, had crossed over to the opposite party, 
and was in conversation with Xeni, when some of the 
young men on both sides began (to use their own ex- 
pression) to play,* i. e. to have a skirmish, which at 
once led to a general fight. The plain was quickly 
covered with fighting men, and several spent balls fell 
near Mr. Burrows, who escaped to a rising ground, 
uncertain by what route he could return, as the fight- 
ing lay along the path by which he had come. As he 
was thus debating with himself, the voice of some na- 
tive, he knew not from which side, rose above the din 
of arms, calling on those who were stopping up the 
road to draw off, and allow him to pass in safety. 

In an instant the firing ceased ; and Mr. Burrows, 

* See 2 Sam. ii. 14, 
Q 



226 GENERAL INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 



taking advantage of this respite, rode quickly past, 
urged on by various natives on the path, crying out, 
" Make haste, lest you should be wounded." Xo sooner 
had he passed in safety than the firing re-commenced. 

Sad as was this war, there were circumstances con- 
nected with it, that gave additional proof of the general 
influence of Christianity upon the people. Even the 
heathen, whether fighting with Europeans or with na- 
tives, had learnt to refrain from the atrocities and wan- 
ton cruelties heretofore inseparable from the battle- 
field ; # while among the Christian native combatants, 
there were often striking instances of generous forbear- 
ance. And though we would fain have omitted all 
allusion to it, we feel bound to mention the difference 
between the European and the native; troops, as to the 
observance of the Sabbath. The latter stedfastly per- 
severed in keeping it holy, while the former continued 
their attacks on Sundays as on other days. Indeed the 
final victory over Heki was obtained by the English 
troops taking advantage of the defenceless state of his 
strongly fortified Pa, while the Christians within it 
were engaged in their Sunday worship. 

The war-dance too began to be given up, and was 
soon looked back upon with shame. A little later 
than the time of which, we are writing, a hideous 
imitation of it was performed at Auckland, by a party 
of soldiers, who had learnt it from some of the lower 
class of natives. Some chiefs happened to be present, 
who were greatly distressed; and Te "Wliero AYhero, 
the noble old chief of ten thousand Waikato warriors, 

* The last instance of cannibalism that we have met with, was at 
Taupo in 1841 ; we believe there was one later case, bnt do not know 
the particulars. 



DAK GEES TO THE CONVERTS. 



227 



indignantly exclaimed, " Snob things are finished now, 
let them be forgotten." 

A storm, such as this war had proved, could not 
fail to shake the tender plants of the infant Maori 
Church : some, alas ! fell beneath the blast, never again 
to rise ; others, if we may so express it, were stripped 
of leaves and blossoms, but the vital germ was safe, and 
again they budded and brought forth fruit. While 
many, like 

" The trees whom shaking fastens more, 
While blustering winds destroy the wanton bowers," * 

were strengthened in their faith and Christian princi- 
ple, and became ;, the joy and crown of rejoicing" of 
their faithful ministers, who had so long and so prayer- 
fully borne the cross for them. 

The storms of war however were not the only peril 
to which the New Zealand converts were at this time 
exposed. The sunshine of prosperity was scarcely less 
dangerous in the districts to which Europeans were 
resorting in such numbers. The sudden and very larp-e 
demand for labour, and for many of the necessaries of 
life, the ready market and high prices to be obtained at 
Auckland and Wellington and various smaller settle- 
ments, tempted many of the more industrious and en- 
terprising of the population to take up their temporary, 
or even permanent abode where the pecuniary advan- 
tages were so great. Nbthing however could induce 
some of the Christian natives to quit their homes and 
give up the religious privileges they so much valued; and 
a few even of those who had removed to the towns, 
feeling their own weakness to resist the new tempta- 

* Herbert's Poems. 

Q 2 



228 



FEIEXBS AT AVCKXlND. 



tions by which they were surrounded, returned again 
to their own villages, preferring comparative povertv, 
with a clear conscience, to the danger of making ship- 
wreck of their faith. 

Those Christian natives who were engaged at Auck- 
land would have suffered more from the sad examples of 
Sabbath-breaking, fraud, drunkenness, and profligacy 
that abounded on all sides, had they not been greatly 
sheltered from their influence by the Christian "kindness 
of several friends of the Maori race. Mr, Martin, the 
Chief Justice, Mr. Swainson, the Attorney-general, and 
Mr. Clarke, the late Missionary, who had been ap- 
pointed by Government, Protector of the Aborigines, 
particularly exerted themselves on their behalf; and 
encouraging the natives to erect their huts round their 
own dwellings, preserved them as much as possible 
from contact with evil. The Bishop of New Zealand, 
writing on this subject in July, 1843. says, H Here their 
habits of daily devotion remain unchanged; morning 
and evening they are still heard singing their hymns 
in the temporary huts they have built in the little bays 
near the town, especially near the friends of the Maoris 
above-mentioned. Mr. Martin is seldom without a 
little family of his friends encamped near his house 
in the little bay in which he lives, a mile and a half 
from the town." "What a cheering picture! and we 
can add a later one of a very similar character from 
the pen of one who was not likely to give too favourable 
a view either of the Missionaries or their converts. 
Colonel Mundy writes. " Sunday, December 26th. 1847. 
I was returning with the Governor from a walk to 
Mount Eden, when, upon turning the angle of the 
volcano, we came upon some hamlets belonging to 



SCENE NEAJ8 AUCKLAND. 



229 



people employed by Government in quarrying the stone 
at the foot of the hill. I do not remember eyer to 
have seen a more interesting or impressive scene than 
met our view as we looked down into the little valley 
below ns. Eighty or a hundred Maoris of various ages 
and different sexes were standing, sitting, or reclining 
among the low fern in front of the village in such groups 
and attitudes as accident had thrown them into. In 
the midst, on a slightly elevated mound, stood a native 
teacher, deeply tattooed in face, but dressed in decent 
black European clothes, who, with his Bible in his 
hand, was expounding to them the Gospel in their own 
tongue. Taking off our hats, we approached so as to 
become part of the congregation. Iso head turned to- 
wards us, no curious eyes were attracted by the arrival 
of the strangers, (as is so often the case in more civil- 
ized congregations,) though the Governor was one of 
them. Their calm and grave looks were fixed with at- 
tention on the preacher, who, on his part, enforced his 
doctrine with a powerful and persuasive voice and man- 
ner, and with gestures replete with energy and anima- 
tion. The sermon was apparently extempore, but there 
was no poverty of words or dearth of matter. It was 
delivered with the utmost fluency, and occasional rapid 
reference to and quotation from Scripture. The wild 
locale of this out-door worship (in the lap, as it were, 
of a mountain torn to pieces by its own convulsions, in 
the midst of heaped-up lava and scoria?, with fern and 
flax waving in the gale) invested the scene with a pe- 
culiar solemnity, and carried one back some centuries 
in the history of the world." 



CHAPTER XIX. 



ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP — WAIMATE — STATISTICS OF MISSION IN 

1854. 

*' I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the 
myrtle, and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and 
the pine, and the box tree together."— Isaiah xli. 19. 

It was well that, before we began our work, we had 
fixed on the year 1840 as the limit of our connected 
history of this Mission ; for the stations now became 
so multiplied, and the details necessarily so complicated, 
that though the subsequent period abounds in facts of 
the deepest interest, we should in vain have attempted 
to convey any distinct idea of them in a single volume. 

Our intention therefore is, after very slightly glanc- 
ing at some of the intervening events, to occupy this 
and the following chapter with a statistical account of 
the New Zealand stations connected with the Church 
Missionary Society, in 1854. 

The year 1842 was marked by the arrival of the 
Bishop : he was cordially welcomed by the Mission- 
aries ; and for some days took up his abode with Mr. 
H. "Williams at Paihia. He subsequently removed to 
the Waimate, and was so pleased with the locality and 
all the attendant circumstances of the settlement, that 
he there fixed his family and whole establishment, 
while he himself set out on a visit to his large and in- 
teresting diocese. The Bishop's active habits and 



VISITS OF THE BISHOP. 



181 



j owers of walking gave him a remarkable advantage in 
this tonr ; as they enabled him to penetrate into parts 
of the country otherwise inaccessible, and brought be- 
fore him scenes which he would scarcely otherwise have 
witnessed. One of the&e was in the eastern district 
of the Island. The Bishop and his party had crossed 
the Island on foot or in canoes from Manawatu, had 
been to Ahuriri, where was already " a very numerous 
Christian community, though they had only once been 
visited by a Missionary;" and after a toilsome walk 
through the whole day, over sandstone hills, they 
pitched their tents on Saturday night for the day of 
rest. " On Sunday, November 20," wrote the Bishop, 
" we enjoyed another peaceful Sunday. The morning 
opened, as usual, with the morning hymn of the birds, 
which Captain Cook compares to a concert of silver 
bells, beginning an hour before the sun rises, and 
ceasing as soon as it appears above the horizon. When 
the song of the birds was ended, the sound of native 
voices round our tents carried on the same tribute ol 
praise and thanksgiving ; while audible murmurs on 
every side brought to our ears the passages of the 
Bible which others were reading to themselves. I 
have never felt the full blessing of the Lord's day, as a 
day of rest, more than in Xew Zealand, when, after en- 
camping late on Saturday night with a weary party, 
you will find them, early on the Sunday morning, 
seated quietly round their fires, with their Xew Testa- 
ments in their hands." 

Many incidents of interest occurred to the Bishop 
on his journeys, but we shall content ourselves with 
one more. He was intending, in company with some 
of the Missionaries, to row down the Wanganui to the 



232 VISITS OF THE BISHOP. 

western coast, but when the party readied the river 
there were there no canoes ready for them ; an'd it was 
impossible to make their way by land along its beauti- 
fully wooded banks, as in many places the stream is 
enclosed in walls of rock, leaving no footing on either 
side. To retrace their steps would have caused a too 
long delay ; and, as provisions were running short, they 
could not remain for the uncertain arrival of the ex- 
pected canoes. An air-bed, which the Bishop carried 
with him, was therefore fastened to a rude frame of 
sticks, and on it two natives paddled down the stream 
to the nearest village at which" a canoe could be pro- 
cured. A very small one was brought back ; and in it 
the Bishop, and three natives on whom he could de- 
pend, started for a row of 150 miles down the river, 
leaving the others to follow the circuitous route by 
land. We now quote the journal itself: "November 
19th, 1843, Sunday. Having ascertained the distances 
of some of the principal Pas on the river, I resolved to 
take a service at each, in order to see the greatest pos- 
sible number of natives ; being disappointed by the de- 
lay of the canoes, in my hopes of spending the week on 
the river. We started at day-break ; and at a quarter 
to nine, the usual time for morning service, arrived at 
Utapu, where I found a congi egation of more than one 
hundred preparing for Divine worship, in a very neat 
native chapel. After spending two hours with them, I 
went on a short distance to Biri-a-te Pa, where I super- 
intended the usual mid-day school, at which the natives 
read the New Testament and repeat the Catechism, 
ending with singing and prayer. Two hours more 
brought me to Piperiki, where I gave a short address 
to about two hundred natives, and inspected a new 



TESTIMONY OF THE BISHOP. 



233 



chapel which they had lately opened ; a most credit- 
able piece of native workmanship. From thence we 
proceeded to Pukekika, the most populous of the 
river Pas, where I assembled, at the evening service, a 
congregation of three or four hundred natives. A quiet 
row of an hour brought us at sunset to Ikurangi, where 
we slept. A more lovely day in respect of weather, or 
one more full of interest in respect of its moral circum- 
stances, or of pleasure from the beauty of the scenery 
through which I passed, I never remember to have 
spent. It was a day of intense delight from beginning 
to end — from the earliest song of the birds, who awak- 
ened me in the morning, to the evening hymn of the 
natives, which was just concluded when I reached the 
door of the native chapel at Ikurangi." 

The view taken by the Bishop of the general work 
of the Mission, will best appear by inserting an ex- 
tract from a sermon he preached at Paihia in June, 
1842. " Cueist has blessed the work of His ministers 
in a wonderful manner. We see here a whole nation 
of pagans converted to the faith. God has given a 
new heart and a new spirit to thousands after thou- 
sands of our fellow-creatures in this distant quarter of 
the earth. A few faithful men, by the power of the 
Spirit of God, have been the instruments of adding 
another Christian people to the family of God. Young 
men and maidens, old men and children, all with one 
heart and with one voice praising God ; all offering up 
daily their morning and evening prayers ; all searching 
the Scriptures to find the way of eternal life ; all valu- 
ing the Word of God above every other gift ; all, in a 
greater or less degree, bringing forth and visibly dis- 
playing in their outward lives some fruits of the infiu- 



234 



ORDINATIONS. 



ences of tlie Spirit. Where will you find throughout 
the Christian world more signal manifestations of the 
presence of the Spirit, or more living evidences of the 
kingdom of Christ ? " 

How honoured was the Church Missionary Society 
in having been God's privileged instrument in this 
great, this blessed work ! Tor it will doubtless be re- 
membered, that although there are now other clergy- 
men labouring in the country, yet that, before the 
arrival of the Bishop, the only ministers and teachers 
of the Gospel throughout the whole Island, except 
those sent out by the Wesleyan Missionary Society, 
who were chiefly located on the western coast, were 
the Missionaries and Catechists of our own Society. 

In 1843, the Bishop admitted to holy orders the 
long-tried and earnest Christian teacher, Mr. E. 
Davis ; and in the course of the following year, Messrs. 
Chapman, Davies, Hamlin, and Matthews were also 
ordained ; and the Revs. W. Williams, H. Williams, 
A. N. Brown, and O. Hadfieid were appointed Arch- 
deacons. 

In November, 1844, the Bishop removed with his 
family and establishment from the Waimate to Auck- 
land ; and the Rev. It. Burrows, who since his arrival 
in 1840 had resided at Kororarika, took charge of this 
hitherto peaceful and flourishing station. Alas ! its 
peace and prosperity were now to suffer a sad inter- 
ruption ; the Waimate was in the centre of the dis- 
turbed districts ; and Held used every means in his 
power to draw the Christian natives over to his side. 
Can we wonder that with all their love for their coun- 
try, and with all the jealousy of Europeans that had 
been so industriously infused into their minds, many 



EFFECTS OF WAR. 



235 



even at "Waimate should for a time have been drawn 
aside ? The congregations were reduced, children were 
withdrawn from the schools ; and the occupation of the 
settlement as a military post by our own soldiers com- 
pleted the change at Waimate. 

But Mr. and Mrs. Burrows did not move ; a few 
faithful people still remained, and their minister would 
not forsake them ; his influence also tended to restrain, 
in some measure, any disorderly conduct of the sol- 
diers ; and he found that his continual visits to and 
from the hostile parties were very useful in softening 
the asperities on both sides, as well as in prevailing 
on many to refrain from taking part with Heki, and to 
remain quiet and neutral. 

How thankful was our Missionary when peace was 
again restored ! It was some time however before the 
settlement returned to its former state. The houses 
had been roughly used by their military occupants, 
two had been burnt to the ground, many trees had 
been cut down, and the gardens and fields had run to 
waste ; and though, as one of the Christian natives re- 
marked, Waimate was still " the bright spot of blue 
sky, which, while the heavens were black around them, 
gave hopes that the storm would soon pass away," 
yet it was long before the native mind recovered from 
the blighting effects of war and bloodshed. 

Xo amount however of discouragement prevented 
Mr. Burrows from steadily persevering in his work ; 
and the state of the settlement soon improved. The 
faithful few whom we have already mentioned still 
cheered him by their stedfastness, and some of those 
Avho had been drawn aside gradually resumed their 
former habits, and the congregation again increased. 



236 



SCHOOLS. 



One of the first employments of our Missionary was 
to re-establish the schools which had been broken up 
by the war ; and ninety girls were soon collected to be 
fed, and clothed, and taught. The education of the 
boys was as important as that of the girls ; but Mr. 
Burrows had no funds, and he therefore proposed to 
open a school in which the boys should be instructed 
for half the day, on condition of their cultivating the 
land for their own support during the remaining hours. 
This was acceded to, and about thirty lads were soon 
established at the Waimate. They worked well, and 
in the course of the second year raised more potatoes 
than were required for their own consumption. Na- 
turally enough, Mr. Burrows proposed that the sur- 
plus should be made over to the girls' school ; but the 
Maori pride was roused at the idea of the lords of the 
creation labouring for women ; and a deputation from 
the boys went to Mr. Burrows to remonstrate. The 
agreement, they said, had been that they should work 
for themselves, and this they had done ; but no men- 
tion had been made of supplying the girls. Mr. Bur- 
rows put his hand on one of their jackets which had 
been made at the girls' school, and quietly asked : 
" And when the agreement was made between us, was 
any mention made of the girls making your jackets for 
you ?" The boys hung down their heads, walked away 
in silence, and no difficulty was in future raised on 
this important point. 

There were several interesting circumstances con- 
nected with these schools. One of the girls was an 
orphan, the god-daughter of an aged chief who was ex- 
ceedingly fond of her ; and when he brought her to 
school, committed her with affectionate earnestness to 



SCHOOL-CIIILDREIS. 



237 



the special care of the Missionary and the teacher. 
This man had been one of the most savage of New 
Zealand's warriors, and a strong opposer of the Mis- 
sionaries. They had often spoken to him of eternal 
things, but without effect ; and the only answer they 
often received was a look of contemptuous defiance, 
accompanied by that hideous expression, of Maori dis- 
like, the protruding the tongue till it reached the top 
of the chin. But he had now been made a new crea- 
ture in Christ Jesus, his passions were subdued, and 
he had become as earnest for the salvation of others as 
he had once been foremost in Avar and cannibalism. 
The soul of his god-daughter was a chief subject of his 
anxious care, and he watched her progress with inter- 
est and hope. She had been three years at school when 
she was taken very ill, and the god-father was sent for. 
At first her state of mind did not satisfy the good 
chief's anxious heart; but he talked to her, read with 
her, and prayed with her ; he led her to the Saviour ; 
and at the end of three weeks of patient, watchful at- 
tendance, he saw her depart in peace, and received 
from her dying lips the assurance that she was happy 
and going to Jesus. He felt her death deeply, but 
could say, " Do not suppose I want her back again ; in 
her lifetime I had many anxious thoughts about her ; 
but now she has fallen asleep in Jesus, and is beyond 
the reach of every temptation." 

Another case was that of a little boy of five years 
old, in the Infant School. He was taken ill, and was 
sent to the sick-house that he might be properly nursed. 
The poor child begged that his sister, a little older 
than himself, and also in the school, might come to see 
him. When she entered the room, he anxiously looked 



238 



SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



to see if she had anything in her hand, but finding she 
had not, exclaimed, " Have you not brought me any- 
thing ?" ""What did you wish me to bring your" 
inquired the sister. " I hoped you would have brought 
your New Testament, I want you to read it to me." 
The Testament was soon fetched ; and it was a sweet 
sight to see the two dear children, the one reading, the 
other eagerly drinking in the words of eternal life. The 
little girl constantly visited and read to her suffering 
brother; some passages seemed peculiarly to interest 
him, and " Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," 
was one he specially delighted in. So fearful was he 
of the precious volume being mislaid or carried away, 
that as soon as his sister had finished reading, he would 
take it from her, and put it under his pillow, till one 
morning, which proved to be the last morning of his 
short life, instead of placing it there as usual, he re- 
tained it in his hand, where after his death it was 
found, too tightly grasped to be removed without force, 
and it was buried with him. " Out of the mouth of 
babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise." 

But we must proceed to the statistics of the Mis- 
sion. 

NORTHERN DISTRICT. 
Stations. Missionaries and European Catechists. 

' \ Mr. W. C. Puckey. / 

Kaikohi, Rev. It. Davis. 

( Rev. R. Burrows,* 
Waimate and Paihia. I Rev. W. C. Dudley,* 

( Mr. E. Williams. ) 

. • \ 

* Mr. Burrows and Mr. Dudley are at present in England ou 



STATISTICS. 



239 



TEPUNA 

Has been relinquished as a regular station for the 
last three or four years ; and in May, 1854, Mr. King, 
of whom we have so often spoken, peacefully entered 
into his rest, after nearly forty years of patient labour 
in the service of his Lord. He had been permitted, 
in addition to the other fruits of his labour, to see the 
conversion of the sister of his first friend, the chief 
Euatara. Kahurere, for such was her native name, 
had long been a steady friend to the Missionaries ; she 
was peaceable and industrious, but many years passed 
before she showed any signs of spiritual life. At 
length it pleased GrOD to open her eyes, and quicken 
her soul ; and in 1840 she was baptized. In 1816, she 
died at an advanced age, but with her mind clear, calm, 
and intelligent to the last, and resting on Jesus 
Cheist. who, as she would say, "died for sinners like 
me." 

KEEI-KEEI 

Has also been given up, on account of the rapid di- 
minution of the population. 

EAITAIA 

Continues under the faithful and active care of the 
Eev. J. Matthews and Mr. Puckey, and is making pro- 
gress in every respect. 

KAIKOHI. 

The Eev. _R. Davis took the charge of this station 
in a time of great difficulty and peril, yiz. at the first 
breaking out of the war with Heki. The place itself 

account of health. Mr. Matthews is in charge of Waimate. Arch- 
deacon H. Williams resides at Pakaraka, about 6 miles from Waimate. 



240 



STATISTICS. 



was endeared to him by many pleasant associations ;* 
and his residence there during the war proved to be of 
the most important service. His presence served to 
confirm the wavering, and to shelter the peaceably dis- 
posed from the anger of Heki, whose own Pa was but 
a few miles off ; who, while he spared neither persua- 
sions nor threats to induce his neighbours to join him, 
always treated, the Missionary with respect and kind- 
ness. Mr. Davis mourns over the want of more spi- 
ritual life in his people, yet if we take the many proofs 
he incidentally relates of tenderness of conscience, desire 
for instruction, resignation under afflictive dispensa- 
tions, anxiety for the salvation of others, and holy 
joy and peace on a dying-bed, we fear he would find 
much more cause for mourning in most of our English 
parishes. We cannot forbear to mention, that among 
those who proved faithful unto death, was Mary the 
widow of our old friend Porotene Bipi ; who was laid 
beside her husband in that rich burial-ground at 
Mawi. f 

We are not able to give the numbers at each of 
these stations separately ; but taking the whole North- 
ern District, we find by the last accounts, that there 
were 30 native catechists and 741 communicants ; 
and that it contained ten chapels built with boards, 
and between thirty and forty raupo chapels. 

MIDDLE DISTRICT. 

Missionaries and European Catechists. 
Rev. G. A. Kissling, 
Mr. Vidal, Lay Secretary, 
Mr. J. Telford. 



• Chapter xiii, f Note to page 180 



Stations. 
Auckland, 



STATISTICS. 



241 



Hatiraki, 
Kaitoteke, 

Otawhao, 



Roto-rua, 

Opitikiy 
Ahikereriiy 



Waikato, 



Tauranga, 



Stations. 



Missionaries and European Catechists, 
Rev. T. Lanfear. 
Rev. B. Ashwell. 

!Rev. J. Morgan, 
Mr. H. Ireland, Schoolmaster 
( Rev. R. Maunsell, 
\ Mr. J. Stack, School Assistant, 
f Ven. Archdeacon Brown, 
{ Rev. C. P. Davies. 
j Rev. T. Chapman, 
I Rev. S. M. Spencer. 
Rev J. A. Wilson. 
Mr. J. Preece. 



The last returns of this district give the number of 
communicants as 1489, native teachers 226, children 
and ad alts under instruction 5220 ; and there were a 
hundred native-built chapels. 

If our readers will turn to the 16th and 17th chap- 
ters of this volume, they will see how much of interest 
was attached to the commencement of Missionary work 
in this part of the Island ; and this interest did not 
diminish, though its character was changed, during the 
succeeding years. The same desire for the "Word of 
God continued to be manifested; and among other 
instances, we are told of a young " ariki," of not more 
than seventeen years of age, who, for the sake of ob- 
taining a "New Testament and a few Common Prayer 
Books, accompanied Mr. Wilson from Opotiki to and 
from Otawhao, altogether a journey of 350 miles. 

But the only station we shall linger at is Otawhao, 
The people here had first heard the gospel from Mr. 
Hamlin before he was driven from Mangapouri.* 
Other Missionaries visited the place, and at length it 



* Page 195. 



212 



OTAWHAO. 



became a regular out-station of Waikato, under Mr. 
Maunsell. The people very early showed the same de- 
cision of purpose as those at Mata-mata had done;* they 
came out from the heathen and built themselves a new- 
village. It is now a separate station under the care of 
the Eev. J. Morgan, who has resided there since 1840. 

The first thing we shall notice is the chapel, and we 
cannot give a better description of it than by quoting 
from the pages of Mr. Angas,t who visited this station 
a few years ago,J and was very much interested in it. 
After speaking of the natives having formerly built one 
which was blown down, Mr. Angas continues : " They 
then erected their present commodious place of wor- 
ship, which will comfortably contain a thousand natives. 
It measures eighty-six feet by forty-two. The ridge- 
pole is the stem of a single tree, eighty-six feet in 
length ; and was dragged, together with the rest of the 
timber, a distance of three miles from the woods. The 
rafters are all detached, and most of the wood-work is 
fastened together with flax. The sides are beautifully 
worked with fern-stalks tied together with aku, a 
species of wild climber, which gives it a rich and fin- 
ished appearance. The entire design originated with 
the natives, who formed this spacious building without 
rule or scale, and with no other tools than their adzes, 
a few chisels, and a couple of saws. After the erection 
of the framework, the season was so far advanced that, 
fearing they should not be able to complete it in time, 
the Otawhao people requested a party of 100 Maun- 

* Page 198. 

f Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, by G. F. An- 
gas, Esq. 
% In November, 1844. 



BLIND SOLOMON. 



243 



gatautari natives to assist them in its completion ; to 
whom they gave the entire sum that had been granted 
them by the Church Missionary Society, amounting to 
about £23. They also killed two hundred pigs, that 
their friends might live well while they were assisting 
them. There are thirteen windows of a Gothic shape, 
and these were fetched from Tauranga on the coast, — 
a distance of seventy-five miles, — by fourteen men, 
who carried them on their backs, over mountains and 
through forests, without any payment whatever." 

But it is not this material building, interesting as the 
account is, that has induced us to pause at Otawhao ; 
it is a far nobler work, a work not of man, but of God 
Himself It is " Blind Solomon " one of the "lively 
stones" in God's "spiritual house," that has arrested 
our attention. And here too we are indebted to Mr. 
Angas for much information. Solomon's heathen name 
was Marahau ; from the time when he was quite a boy 
he used to accompany his father in all his fighting ex- 
peditions, and join with him in the horrible feasts that 
followed. Generally Marahau' s party was successful, 
but when Hongi and his Ngapuis, with their newly in- 
troduced fire-arms, poured down upon them, they could 
no longer maintain their ground. On one occasion, 
two thousand of them were slain; their bones still 
whiten on the plain, and the ovens may still be seen in 
which the bodies were cooked for the dreadful banquet. 
Marahau himself was taken prisoner; but happily 
escaped and fled to the mountains. Still however a 
captive to sin and Satan, the first use that Marahau 
made of his recovered liberty was to collect together 
his own tribe, and, according to New Zealand custom, 
to revenge himself upon Hongi and the Ngapuis, by 
b 2 



2U 



BLIND SOLOMON. 



carrying war and desolation to a tribe wholly uncon- 
nected with them. He led his people to Poverty Bay, 
where six hundred of the unoffending inhabitants were 
killed and devoured by them. 

Soon after this, Marahau became blind : he still 
lived at Otawhao, but one day, being at Mata-mata, he 
w r as arrested by the preaching of Mr. H. Williams. In 
due time he was baptized by the name of Solomon, or 
Horomona ; and soon after Mr. Morgan's arrival at 
Otawhao, he found him sufficiently advanced to be- 
come a teacher. Mr. Augas was much interested 
in blind Horomona, and it was to him that the chief 
related the incidents of his former life which we have 
just repeated. One day he accompanied Mr. Angas 
and Mr. Morgan to a distant village, where the funeral 
of a native child took place. After the service Horo- 
mona gave an address to several hundred natives who 
had assembled round the grave ; and Mr. Angas pro- 
ceeds, " this address, which was translated to me by 
Mr. Morgan as it was uttered, was one of the finest 
and most impassioned pieces of eloquence I ever 
heard." 

In December, 18-15, Mr. Morgan thus writes of 
Horomona : "I sent for blind Horomona Marahau, to 
converse with him about going to "Wawarua as a 
teacher. He said he was very willing to go and preach 
the word of God, but that I must provide him with a 
companion ; for, being blind, he should not be able to 
tell whether the people were mocking or attending to 
his instructions. I proposed that his wife should ac- 
company him ; and engaged that their plantations 
should not be neglected during their absence. Horo- 
mona is a chief of some importance ; and I believe him 



BLI>D SOLOMON. 



245 



to be a decided as well as a most consistent Christian. 
He is a regular communicant, and was confirmed by 
the Bishop in December last. Every Lord's day he 
may be seen at school, standing with his class round 
him, instructing the old men in the things of God. 
His knowledge of the Scriptures is very great, and his 
memory very retentive. I occasionally send him to 
visit the outposts, as he is everywhere very much re- 
spected. He commences the morning or evening ser- 
vice, as the case may be, (omitting the Psalms,) repeats 
the chapters he selects as lessons, and then addresses 
the congregation. To-day he applied to me for a copy 
of the Psalms, as he wished to learn them. He man- 
ages to find his way alone to places within three miles 
round the station ; but when going beyond that dis- 
tance, he requires a guide." On the 31st, Horomona 
and his wife took their departure for Wawarua, a dis- 
tance of thirty-seven miles, crossing rivers and swamps, 
and sat down in the midst of their enemies, to make 
known to them the gospel of Christ. 

Horomona might well have adopted the words of oui 
own blind Milton ; 

" Seasons return, but not to me return 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; 
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark 
Surround me ! from the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off ; and, for the book of knowledge fair, 
Presented with a universal blank 
Of nature's works, to me expunged and razed ; 
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. 
So much the rather, thou celestial Light, 
Shine inward, and the mind through all her power • 



246 



BLIIS'D SOLOMON. 



Irradiate. There plant eyes ; all mist from thence 
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell 
Of things invisible to mortal sight." 

And God was pleased to grant him this sight of 
things invisible. His own expression one day was, 
that " he was all light within, that the people of the 
world conld not discern the light he possessed." 

In 1849 the Governor, Sir G. Grey, visited Otawhao, 
and was very much struck with Horomona and his ap- 
pearance and manner, to which his blindness added a 
peculiar and calm dignity. He conversed with him, 
kindly presented him with some articles of clothing from 
his own stock, and promised to send him an annual sup- 
ply from Auckland. 

Horomona is still alive, but the last time he was par- 
ticularly mentioned was in February, 1850, when he 
n*as walking stedfastly and consistently. 



CHAPTER XX. 



STATISTICS CONTINUED — FRESEN-T STATE OF THE ISLAND. 

" I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the 
myrtle, and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and 
the pine, and the box tree together. " — Isaiah xli. 19. 

EASTERN DISTRICT. 

We have in a preceding chapter # spoken of the 
remarkably rapid increase of converts in this populous 
district. The work has not declined, and the once im- 
mense " parish " has now been subdivided, and Arch- 
deacon "W. Williams has several coadjutors in his blessed 
labours. The Missionaries now are as follows : 

Stations. 
East Ca})e, 
Uawa, 
Tiiranga } 
Wairoa, 
Ileretaungciy 

By the last accounts, the number of communicants 
was 2735, and there were 109 native teachers. 

There is one event connected with the Eastern Dis- 
trict that we cannot pass over without some additional 
notice ; we mean the ordination of the first native 
teacher. Eota (Lot) Waitoa had been for eleven years 

* Page 209. 



Missionaries and European Catechists. 
f Rev. C. Baker, 
\ Rev. Rota Waitoa. 

Vacant. 

( Ven. Archdeacon W. Williams, 
\ Rev. W. L. Williams. 

Rev. J. Hamlin. 
( Rev. S. Williams, 
\ Mr. C. S. Volkner. 



248 



EOT A WAITOA. 



at St. John's College, Auckland ; and on Trinity Sun- 
day, 1853, was admitted to deacon's orders. He is 
spoken of by Archdeacon Brown as "a very humble, 
devoted Christian, one who loves his Saviour, is fully 
acquainted with all the leading doctrines of the gospel, 
and deeply feels the reality and blessedness of those 
truths that he is going forth to proclaim to his country- 
men." "Follow him," continues the Archdeacon, 
"with your prayers, that he may be kept humble and 
faithful. The ordination service was most solemn and 
affecting ; it seemed the realization of many an anxious 
hope, and many a fervent prayer, which your Mission- 
aries had offered in days when all around was darkness, 
but when by the eye of faith they could see in words 
of light, beyond the lowering cloud, 6 He must reign 
— every knee shall bow.' " Heartily do we unite in the 
Archdeacon's closing aspiration, " May this first-fruits 
be followed by an abundant harvest !" 

Nor will we omit one other history connected with 
the Eastern District ; particularly as it gives an insight 
into the native mind which is very interesting. One 
of the Missionaries had under his charge the large 
tract of country that stretches across from Heretaunga 
to Cook's Straits ; he placed native teachers in many 
of the villages, but, as may be supposed, his own visits 
to each could be but very seldom. When at Mataikona, 
in 1845, he met with four young men who had been sent 
by their father, the chief of a village at some distance, 
to request a visit. The Missionary complied with this 
request ; and after some time, we find that the chief 
and his sons had become Christians, that the father 
was baptized by the name of Xarepa, (Caleb,) and was 
engaged in teaching some of his countrymen. 



KAItEPA. 



249 



In 1650, the Missionary, in one of his long tours, 
again approached the little lonely village of Te Hawera. 
As he emerged from the dark wood through which his 
roaoVhad lain, he found that things were sadly changed 
since he had last been there. The chief Karepa Avas 
dead, and the joyous welcome that had heretofore 
greeted him was changed into mournful wailings. The 
Missionary sat down on the very spot where he and 
Karepa had last parted ; now, on one side was his 
grave, on the other the little chapel he had built, and 
in which he had been baptized. Presently the villagers 
came forward ; all were weeping, and each one as he 
shook the Missionary's hand, and pressed his forehead, 
quietly said, "Accept the dying love of Karepa." 
After this his son related some particulars of his 
father's illness. He told of his gradual decay, of his 
cheerful resignation ; and that when he found he was 
not likely to recover, he had called his family around 
him, and with much energy had spoken a long time to 
them. "You well know," said he, "that I have from 
time to time brought you much riches. I used to bring 
you muskets, hatchets, and blankets ; but I afterwards 
heard of the new riches, called Faith. I sought it ; I 
went to Manawatu, a long and dangerous journey, for 
we were surrounded by enemies. I saw some natives 
who had heard of it, but they could not satisfy me. I 
sought further, but in vain. I then heard of a white 
man, called Hadfield, at Kapiti, and that with him 
was the spring where I could fill my empty and dry 
calabash. I travelled to his place ; but he was gone ? 
gone away ill. I returned to you, my children, dark- 
minded. Many days passed by. The snows fell, they 
melted, they disappeared ; the tree-buds expanded, and 



250 



ivAREPA. 



the paths of our forests were again passable to the foot 
of the Maori. We heard of another white man, who was 
going about over mountains and through forests and 
swamps, giving drink from his calabash to the poor 
secluded natives, to the remnants of the tribes of the 
mighty, of the renowmed of former days, now dwelling 
by twos and threes among the roots of the trees of 
the ancient forests, and among the high reeds by the 
brooks in the valleys. Yes, my grandchildren, your 
ancestors once spread over the country, as the koita- 
reke (quail) and the kiwi (apteryx) once did; but 
now their descendants are as the descendants of those 
birds, scarce, gone, dead. Yes, we heard of that white 
man ; we heard of his going over the snowy mountains 
to Patea, up the east coast, all over the rocks to Tura- 
kirae. I sent four of my children to Mataikona to 
meet him. They saw his face ; yes, you talked w r ith 
him. You brought me a drop of water from his cala- 
bash. You told me he said he would come to this far- 
off spot to see me. I rejoiced. I disbelieved his coming; 
but I said, he may. I built the chapel ; we waited ex- 
pecting. You slept at nights ; I did not He came, he 
came forth from the long forest; he stood upon Te 
Hawera ground. I saw him ; I shook hands with him ; 
we rubbed noses together. Yes, I saw a Missionary's 
face ; I sat in his cloth-honse (tent) ; I tasted his new 
food; I heard him talk Maori. My heart bounded 
within me ; I listened, I ate his words. You slept at 
nights ; I did not. Yes, I listened ; and he told me 
about God, and His Son Jesus Christ, and of peace 
and reconciliation, and of a Father's home beyond the 
stars. And now I, too, drank from his calabash, and 
was refreshed. He gave me a book too. as well as 



KAREPA. 



251 



words. I laid hold of the new riches for me and you; 
and we have it now. My children, I am old, my hair 
is white, the yellow leaf is falling from the tawai tree.* 
I am departing ; the sun is sinking behind the great 
western hills ; it will soon be night. But hear me ; do 
you hold fast the new riches — the great riches — the 
true riches. We have had plenty of sin and pain and 
death ; and we have been troubled by many, by our 
neighbours and relatives ; but we have the true riches — 
hold fast the true riches which Karepa sought for you." 
Here, as the son wefit on to say, the old man became 
faint and ceased talking ; his family wept like little 
children round the bed of their father : they were few 
in number and far from human aid or sympathy. The 
next day the old chief said : "My children, I have been 
dreaming. Last night I saw my minister ; he was 
here smiling upon me, and praying for me. It is well. 
It is good. Xow I know I shall go to the world of 
spirits. It is well. Hold fast the true riches when I 
am gone. God be merciful to me a sinner!" He suf- 
fered much pain and almost without cessation. " He 
prayed much and often," continued the son, "under 
the trees on the edge of the wood, going in his pain 
from place to place. His prayers in his pain were those 
he had got by heart — the Collects for Ash Wednesday, 
the second Sunday in Advent, the second and fourth 
Sundays in Lent, the first in the Communion Service, 
and the Lord's Prayer. He also knew the daily Col- 
lects of the Morning and Evening Prayer, the Confess 
sion, and Chrysostom's, and St. Paul's Benedictory 
Prayer ; these, with the third chapter of St. Matthew's 

* One of t}ie few deciduous trees of New Zealand, 



252 



KATIE PA. 



Gospel, he always used when obliged to stay away from 
his chapel, or to act as minister. Bat ' GrOD be merciful 
to me a sinner!' was constantly on his lips. One Sun- 
day, while we were at school in our little chapel, Leah 
came running to tell us he was gone. We went to the 
edge of the wood, where the body was ; the soul had 
fled away to Jesus' city to dwell with Him." 

Can we wonder that the Missionary, as he tells us, 
wept much during this affecting history ? 

WESTERN DISTRICT. 

This extensive and populous district has only four 
ordained Missionaries, for no more can be spared. 



Stations. Missionaries. 

Wanganui, Rev. R. Taylor. 

Taupo, Rev. T. S. Grace. 

Kapiti, Ven. Archdeacon Hadfieid. 

Otaki, Rev. A. Stock. 



There are, however, 193 Native Teachers; 3587 chil- 
dren and adults in the schools; and 1756 Communi- 
cants. How has "a little one become a thousand" 
since we left Mr. Hadfieid at Kapiti in 1840 ! * Wan- 
ganui was established rather later ; we shall have 
occasion to speak again of it in the next chapter. t 

It will now be asked, " What is the present general 
state of the church of Christ in New Zealand ?" We 
would answer, it is beset with difficulties and dangers, 
but it is full of hope. To quote the words of the last 
Report of the Church Missionary Society, " The tran- 

* Page 214. 

f In addition to the Missionaries connected with the Church 
Missionary Society, Archdeacon Abraham and ten other clergy- 
men are labouring in the Island. 



SIR GEORGE GREY. 



253 



sit ion from a field of Missionary labour to a settled 
Christian community is always beset with perils. In 
this case the difficulties are augmented by the rapid 
colonization of the Island and the mingling together of 
the races. The Bishop and the Missionaries unite in 
the opinion that in future the same Missionary must 
be a pastor to both races. It will be easily perceived 
how much the native Christian community must lose 
of the simplicity of its religious character by being 
thus brought within the influence of European habits, 
tastes, and pursuits, as they exist in the generality of 
the settlers. The strict ecclesiastical discipline, the 
authority of a spiritual father, the habits of a godly 
community, will be in danger of gradually passing into 
the lax customs of a nominal Christianity." 

The dangers of Popery are added to those of world- 
liness. The efforts made by this false religion are 
unceasing ; and though in those districts that have 
long had the blessing of Scriptural teaching they have 
failed of producing much lasting effect, yet in the 
newer districts they have been but too successful 
among the half-awakened and the remaining heathen, 
and cause our Missionaries much anxiety. 

There are however many grounds of encouragement, 
and the testimony of Sir G. Grey is very interesting and 
satisfactory. Sir George very kindly attended a Meet- 
ing of the Committee of the Society in May last (1854), 
when he stated " that he had visited nearly every one 
of its stations, and could speak with confidence of the 
great and good work accomplished by it — that he be- 
lieved that out of the whole native population, estimated 
by himself at about 100.000, there were not more than 



251 



SIR GEORGE GREY. 



1000 that did not make a profession of Christianity ;* 
that though he had heard doubts expressed as to the 
Christian character of some individuals, yet no one 
doubted the effect of Christianity upon the mass of 
the people ; that some of the native teachers were, and 
many by means of the schools might be, qualified for 
acting as native pastors, if admitted to holy orders, 
and might be trusted in such a position to carry on 
the good work among their own countrymen, and even 
to go out as Missionaries to other islands in the Pa- 
cific : that if the work should be consolidated and per- 
fected, as he hoped it would be, the conversion of New 
Zealand would become one of the most encouraging 
facts in the modern history of Christianity, and a pat- 
tern of the way in which it might be established in all 
other heathen countries." 

With this testimony from one so competent to judge, 
and so unbiassed by any previous prejudices, what en- 
couragement has the Church Missionary Society, not 
only to continue its w r ork in New Zealand till a native 
ministry be raised up, fitted and competent to take its 
place among their own people, but, still grasping the 
sword of the Spirit, to go forth and conquer in other 
lands ! "What except the want of Missionaries and of 
funds can hinder it from carrying the banner of the 
Cross to the degraded islands of the Indian Archipelago, 
to the deluded nations of Central Asia, or the unknown 
regions of Africa ? "When will the Church of Christ 
rise to her duties andher privileges ? When will she pour 
her offerings of gold and silver into the Lord's treasury, 

* It is computed that 50,000 of these native Christians are in 
connexion with the Church Missionary Society. 



SIR GEORGE GREY. 



255 



till she shall need to be " restrained from bringing," 
because there shall be " sufficient for the work, and too 
much ?" # And when will she be ready to give her far 
more precious gifts of sons and daughters for His 
name's sake who has given Himself for her ? 

" Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not 
silence, and give Him no rest," till His way shall be 
" known upon earth, His saving health among all na- 
tions." 



* See Exodus xxxvi. 5 — 7. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

W1REMU AND SIMEON — THE MARTYRS OF WANG AN UI — 
CONCLUSION. 

u And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when 
I make up my jewels." — Mal. iii. 17. 

It would seem as though the two preceding chap- 
ters, gathering up, as they do, the notices of the pre- 
sent state of New Zealand, ought to be the concluding 
ones of our volume : but the history of this Mission is 
so rich in details of the deepest interest, — some to be 
found in the periodicals of the Society, some whose 
only earthly record is in the memory of those who 
witnessed them, — that we cannot refrain from enrich- 
ing our little work with two more short narratives. The 
one shows the change of feeling with regard to slaves ; 
the other is an instance of the "utu " sought for by 
a company of Christian natives ; and both therefore 
are characteristic of the effect of Divine grace on the 
Maori character in some of its strongest features. The 
first of these was related to us by a private friend. 

While Mr. Burrows resided at Kororarika,* he 
sometimes visited the island of Motorua. This small 
but picturesque island, lying about five miles from the 
mainland, is one of nature's strongest fastnesses. The 
iron-bound coast, with its tall sharp rocks, baffling the 
force of ocean's wildest waves, forbids the approach of 
* Page 234. 



MOTORUA. 



257 



friend or foe. The only access to the Island is by 
a deep and narrow inlet, and even here the heavy sim 
makes it often difficult to land. At such times, a 
Missionary's visit to Motorua was a stirring scene. 
As the little boat, manned by the boys of the settle- 
ment, neared the shore, the rowers rested on their 
oars and suffered the advancing wave to bear them 
briskly on. Soon the natives on the heights above, 
catching sight of the little vessel, would hurry down 
the steep and wooded banks, and, as the boat's crew, 
watching the favourable moment, dashed in upon the 
beach, they seized the little bark, and dragged her safe 
from the power of the receding billow. 

The chief of this rocky island had been a friend of 
Hongi, and resembled him in character and spirit ; he 
had taken a leading part, in 1830, in the affair at Ko- 
rorarika, and it was to Motorua that some of Mr. 
Marsden's visits had then been made.* How or when 
he was converted we do not know, but in 1840 we 
find him a stedfast and consistent Christian, bearing 
the name of Wiremu.f How changed were now his 
thoughts and aims, and how different his feelings to- 
wards his slaves ! Formerly their portion had been 
ridicule and severity ; they were driven to their work 
as if no better than the beasts that perish ; now he 
knew and felt they had souls immortal like his own, 
and he strove and laboured for their conversion. To 
one of them in particular he was much attached. He 
had already been baptized by the name of Simeon, 
and some time after Mr. Burrows' arrival in New Zea- 
land, was taken seriously ill. His master, anxious to 
provide for him European care and European comforts, 
* Chapter xi. f Or, Williams. 



253 



WIREMU AND SIMEON. 



removed him to the mainland ; and procuring for him 
a convenient hut, left him in the charge of Mr. Bur- 
rows. Not long, however, could the kind-hearted 
Wiremu remain absent from his suffering slave ; he 
left the island, and took up his abode at Kororarika, 
that he might minister to his necessities and comforts. 
He nursed him with the tenderest care, prayed with 
him, read the Word of G-od to him, and left nothing 
undone that was likely to alleviate his sufferings. Mr. 
Burrows visited Simeon daily, and rejoiced to watch 
the progress his soul was making in the things of G od. 
One morning he found him much worse, but ready to 
depart, and clinging with a firm faith to Jesus as his 
all-sufficient Saviour. Scarcely had our Missionary 
reached his home again, when a messenger brought 
him word that Simeon was at the point of death. He 
hastened back, and as he drew near the hut, heard 
some one reading. He entered unperceived, and found 
that the spirit of the youth had left its earthly tene- 
ment, and that his once savage master was comforting 
himself and others round him, by reading aloud the fif- 
teenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. 

How appropriate to the chief himself was the verse, 
" Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ ! " 

Our other narrative is from the "Western District. 

manihera and kereopa. 

Christmas is always a season of peculiar interest at 
Wanganui. Occurring in the midst of the magnificent 
New Zealand summer, it is marked by the assembling 



MASIHERA A3TD XEREOPA. 



259 



together of Christian natives from all parts of the im- 
mense district under Mr. Taylor's care, that they may 
unite in commemorating the birth of the Redeemer. 
The Christmas of 1846 was specially to be remember- 
ed. Two thousand persons from various tribes, who, a 
few years before, would only have met in murderous 
conflict, were now uniting in the worship of the one 
living God of their salvation. The church was too 
small to hold them, Mr. Taylor had the service in an 
adjoining field, and afterwards had the joy of ad- 
ministering the Lord's Supper to not less than three 
hundred and eighty-two communicants. It was a time 
of great solemnity; and on the next day the native 
teachers held a prayer-meeting among themselves, be- 
fore they returned to their several spheres of labour. 
Possibly one subject of their prayers was the conver- 
sion of their heathen countrymen ; for at the close, 
four of the number stood forth and offered themselves 
as Missionaries, specifying Taupo as the region to 
which they desired first to carry the gospel message. 
Mr. Taylor rejoiced in this spontaneous movement 
among the people ; he accepted two, Manihera and 
Kereopa, in whose devotedness and knowledge of the 
Scriptures he had the fullest confidence ; and amidst 
the deep feeling of all present they were committed to 
God in prayer. 

A few years before, Te Heu-heu of Te Eapa, and 
other Taupo chiefs, had led on their warriors against 
the Christian villages near Wanganui ; they had been 
repulsed with loss, some of the leaders had fallen, and 
since that time they had not ceased to harass the un- 
offending Christians, seeking "utu" for the chiefs that 
had been slain. The father of Herekiekie, one of the 
s 2 



260 



MAX IH EE A. A^D KEREOPA. 



principal chiefs, had been killed by some of Manihera' s 
tribe, and the undertaking of these two young men 
was therefore one of peculiar danger. Yet in a visit 
he had lately paid to Taupo, Mr. Taylor had received 
assurances cf goodwill from some of the chief men 
there,* and he trusted that going among them thus on 
a mission of peace and love, Manihera and Kereopa 
would at least be safe from harm. 

On the 6th of February, 1847, these two young 
evangelists set out ; they went first to the friendly 
village of Motutere, where the Christian natives urged 
them to proceed first to Iwikau, the brother of Te 
Heu-heu, as he was a man of milder character than 
the rest. "No," answered Manihera, "we must first 
visit the Pa of Herekiekie, for we are come to preach 
to the wicked;" and then, as if anticipating his fate, 
lie calmly added, that he felt the time of his own de- 
parture was at hand. The Motutere Christians were 
affected, and ten of them resolved to accompany their 
two devoted friends. 

But their courageous sympathy was in vain. Here- 
kiekie himself was absent ; but his widowed mother, a 
woman of a fierce, vindictive spirit, heard of the ap- 
proaching visit, and determined not to lose the oppor- 
tunity of obtaining "utu" for the husband she had 
lost seven years before. 

As the faithful band pursued their journey from 
Motutere to the Pa of Herekiekie, their way led 
through a wood. Manihera and Kereopa, with one of 
their friends named Wiremu, were a little in advance 
of the rest, when they were suddenly fired upon by a 
party concealed in the bush. All three were wounded, 

* Page 10. 



MANIHERA ASD KEREOPA. 



261 



AViremu only slightly, but Kereopa fell instantly, and 
Manihera had only time to give his Testament to his 
friend, and murmuring out that it was indeed great 
riches, he laid his head upon the ground and died. 
Both lost their lives as Christian soldiers, with their 
harness on, and prepared for the battle. Of Manihera 
in particular Mr. Taylor says, " Love to God and man 
beamed in his very countenance, and was manifested 
in all his actions." 

Deep sorrow rested on the Christian natives of 
Wanganui. Again they met and prayed, and express- 
ed their feelings on the sad event. One said, "Although 
a teacher is taken away, the gospel will not be hin- 
dered. A minister or a teacher is like a tall kahi- 
katea tree full of fruit ; it sheds it on every side, and a 
grove of young trees springs up ; so that if the parent 
tree is cut dow r n, its place is soon more than supplied 
by those that it has given birth to." Another rose: 
" Do not think," said he, " about the bodies of our 
friends ; it is true they are left among our enemies, 
but their spirits are alive with God. I know what we 
should have done in former days ; but we should thus 
have only multiplied our dead, and increased our sor- 
row." While a third, the flame of love kindling as he 
spoke, exclaimed, " We must not be discouraged ; we 
must send two more to preach the gospel ; if they 
are killed we will send two more ; and if they perish, 
we will still supply their places ; and then perhaps our 
enemies will give in and be converted." # 

* In 1849, two other young men from Wanganui set out on the 
same mission as that of Manihera and Kereopa. One of them, Pi- 
ripi, a relation of Manihera, was strongly dissuaded from it by his 
friends. " What ! " was the young Missionary's noble reply, " if a 



262 



MANIHERA AND KEItEOPA. 



What a noble "utu" for the blood of Manihera 
and Kereopa ! 

Mr. Taylor felt this to be a critical moment ; the 
spirit of vengeance was not satiated among the heathen 
ronnd the Tanpo ; and the Christians there, less sub- 
dued than those of Wanganui, were filled with indig- 
nation against the murderers, and were ready to fly to 
arms in abhorrence of the deed. He resolved to go 
himself to Taupo ; he did so, and not without consider- 
able personal risk, he at last succeeded in averting the 
gathering storm. 

On their return, the Wanganui party visited the 
spot where their martyred friends were buried. Stand- 
ing round the grave, they united in a hymn, and Mr. 
Taylor addressed them on Eev. xiv. 13, " Blessed are 
the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, 
and their works do follow them." Many a tear was 
shed as they knelt around, and many a fervent prayer 
poured forth, that the same hope that had sustained 
their martyred brethren might be their own support in 
death ; and that the shedding of their blood might be 
overruled to the conversion of the murderers, and the 
dispelling of the deep spiritual gloom # that hung over 
Taupo. 

canoe be upset at sea, does this hinder all other canoes from going 
out for fishing ? I shall go to Taupo, for the object is good." 

* We trust that these prayers are already beginning to be an- 
swered, for in January, 1852, Mr. Taylor mentioned that Te Huia- 
tohi, the very chief that murdered Manihera, had come forward to 
ask for a Missionary ; and that he and some other chiefs had even 
selected a spot for his residence. Mr. Taylor adds, " Surely this is 
some of the fruit of the blood of Manihera which has brought down 
a blessing." 



CONCLUSION. 



263 



We hare now completed our task ; and feel that it 
has been a privilege to be called upon to look closely 
into the history of the ISTew Zealand Mission. Most* 
wonderful is this history ! whether we reflect on the 
preservation of the earlier Missionaries in the midst of 
a barbarous and blood-thirsty people, so that not a 
hair of their heads should perish ; or on the faith and 
courage and enduring love that enabled them to hold 
on for so many years, through privations and perils of 
which -we scarcely know a parallel ; or on the marvel- 
lous change in the islanders themselves. All, all was 
of God ; and we know not where, in these latter days, 
we can look for a more wonderful manifestation of His 
providence and His grace. 

Grod threw His protecting shield around His faithful 
servants ; His arm upheld them in their rugged course ; 
and it was by His Holy Spirit's power that the simple 
faithful preaching of the Cross of Christ in this Island 
of the South, was made effectual to bring the people 
from thickest darkness into marvellous light, and to 
transform many a savage cannibal into a meek and 
humble follower of the Lamb. 

To Him be all the glory ; and to us be the joy to 
think, that among the many diadems on the head of 
Him for whose return the whole creation groaneth, one 
Crown will be resplendent with the dark Maori gems 
of the Southern hemisphere. 



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